For Our Children
by mikomi2
Summary: When the loved ones of the Digidestined are taken prisoner, they most confront danger and themselves or risk losing what they hold dear...
1. Default Chapter

**Author's Notes: This fanfic was first posted/started approximately January 2001 on The Digimon Experience Fanfic Forum. At that time I had not yet seen the ending of Digimon 02, so I suppose that this can be thought of as AU fic now that time has passed. I like to think this is how the Digidestined lived anyway, I still can't see Matt as an astronaut . Anyhow, I've reposted this fanfic because it was previously posted only as one big chunk (which I imagine is a pain to read), and I hadn't previously known html so all the italics and the such that I had used are now back in the series as they should be. I hope you enjoy this fic!**   
mikomi .^^.   
**For Our Children**

Prologue: Taichi Kamiya   
  
A lot's changed since the days we digidestined battled the evils of the world. We're adults now, in our early thirties or late twenties, each living out our normal, systematic lives. Ha, did you actually believe me? Although our lives aren't as excitement-filled as in our youths, they're still pretty lively. For example, at one time I was on the Japan soccer team! I am now a school teacher, part-time soccer coach, and full-time father to my kid. My son's name is Makoto, and many of his features are inherited from me. The only physical resemblance he has to his mother is his dark blue eyes. Makoto is my main reason for living now, if I leave this world he'll have no one left. You see, I'm a widower now. My wife Tamika passed away recently from lung cancer. She didn't smoke and no one in her family smoked either, yet she was "infected" with the disease. Chemotherapy did little for her, and there wasn't even a chance for remission. Makoto's last memories of his mother were of her in a hospital bed, without hair, surrounded by flowers and soft pastel colours. She had smiled lovingly at him, kissed him on the forehead, cheeks, and hands, and told him that she loved him and would be his guardian angel. "Take care of your dad for me," she had said to him, and he had nodded solemnly in response.   
I supposed I could be jealous, all I got was "You know what I'm thinking. I'll always be with you," That was the second time I cried over a female, and I hope it's my last.   
Makoto and I are getting along well though, the father-son bond is at its strongest and we've yet to mar it with a major argument. The only problem we've had was when he asked why his mother died. I have some issues concerning that, and I know he can feel the tension whenever his mother is mentioned. Instead of answering, I tell him stories of the Digital World. I'm not sure if he believes me, or if he just thinks me a crazy storyteller, but at least they fascinate him. And of course, with the way I tell it, Agumon's his favourite digimon. I wouldn't have it any other way.   
So now you've listened to my "made-to-sound-tragic" story, and you'll be dying to know about the others. I'll start with a happy ending/beginning for two of the older digidestined. Sora and Matt were married soon after they graduated from their respective universities. I was Best Man and Mimi was the Maid of Honour, but it would have been different if Gabumon and Biyomon had been able to attend. Sora is a kindergarten teacher at the same school I work at, and we're still the best of friends. For awhile, Matt was a popular and well-liked singer in his badn, but soon retired and settled down to be a lawyer, and quite a successful one at that. Matt and Sora are Makoto's god-parents, and I'm the proud god-father to their two children, Aiko and Kaleb. Aiko's a little girl of four and takes after her mother in appearance and personality. Kaleb, age seven like Makoto, is more rambunctious and adventurous. His features are inherited from his mother as well, but Sora's eight months pregnant and Matt tells me that if this one doesn't look anything like him either, well he'd be darned. Nevertheless, the Ishida family is an immensely happy one.   
My "little" sister, who is little no more, is a vetrinarian in Tokyo. Kari is happily married with a newborn baby and drops by to visit me every once in awhile. Makoto loves his Aunt Kari to death, and Kari in turn adores her nephew. However, Makoto's a little wary of his new baby cousin. He was greatly disappointed that Sakura turned out to be a girl instead of a boy, but he'll grow to love her, I'm sure of it. I bet you're all wondering who Kari's husband is. Surprisingly, Kari did _not_ marry TK. They were engaged for awhile, but for some reason broke off the engagement. Only they know why. What _is_ surprising is the fact that Kari ended up with Davis as a husband! Not that I don't like the kid (who is no longer a kid), I just always thought that Kari and TK would end up together. Davis is a great family man though. He loves Kari, and hey, that's good enough for me. He provides well and is a loving father to Sakura, although he seems to be a little in awe of her at times, as if he can't really believe that she's there. Despite what many people expected of Davis, he turned out to be a sensible young man, most of the time anyway. Of course, Makoto thinks his Uncle Davis is the coolest, while Dad's only second on his list.   
Takeru "TK" Takaishi is currently dating, but he told me he has no plans to marry... yet. TK's still the nice person he's always been, and he's popular among the ladies I hear, though he won't admit it. His current girlfriend, Adelia, is the nicest one so far and seems determined to hang on to TK. He doesn't seem to be protesting either. TK followed in his parents' footsteps and is now a newsreporter. He often drops by on his brother and sister-in-law, and occasionally visits Kari and Davis. I usually see him at either of those places. Although TK isn't the type to dwell on the past, he often talks to us about Patamon and how much he misses the little guy. The only thing we can do is to tell him that Patamon probably misses him just as much, if not more. TK is a great uncle to his nephew and niece, they practically worship him.   
Izzy is, of course, the new Bill Gates. He created a program far superior to Microsoft Windows, as well as a game that was extremely popular among kids. Take a guess at what it is! You guessed it: Digimon the Game. Although Izzy doesn't have any kids of his own yet, he takes great pride in spoiling the children of his many friends. The first thing Izzy did when he hit it big was to buy his parents a huge home and gave them all the money they required to retire. His family is still very close, and his parents still worry about his safety, although he's very much able to take care of himself.   
Joe is a highly successful surgeon nowadays and is no longer as squeamish as he used to be. As a matter of fact, he's known for his calm and cool approach to any impossible situation. He still lives here in Odaiba, so I get to see him quite frequently, and he often brings his girlfriend and her child to visit. Joe will be a great dad someday, he's really fond of his girlfriend's kid and spoils him rotten. Of course, he doesn't have too much spare time because his job keeps him on his toes. He's even complained half-jokingly that he needs a therapist. But he's still good old reliable Joe!   
The people who didn't know Mimi Tachikawa very well always thought she wouldn't amount to much. However, we digidestined knew better. Mimi was a very much in-demand actress/model/singer for a long time. Now if that isn't success, I don't know what is! She dropped the singing and modeling career before long and started taking smaller parts so she would have more time for her first love: fashion designing. She's married with two children and seems blissfully happy. However, she lives the farthest away because she currently resides in the USA. But it's not a big problem because Mimi is still quite talkative on the phone, and Matt tells me she and Sora really stretch the phone bills. I haven't seen her in person since Kari and Davis' wedding, but I've talked to her a few times on the phone and send her Christmas cards and presents for her children. She does the same, and one gets a whiff of Mimi's well-meaning and sincere personality from a friendly and chatty letter. Every once in awhile all of us digidestined gather together at one person's home and watch Mimi in a guest-starring role or movie, pointing out to our children proudly that the woman on the TV screen was their Aunt Mimi.   
Who would've guessed that those chants of "Yolei Ichijouji! Ken and Yolei Ichijouji!" would come true? But we're all happy for them. Yolei's happy chatter and optimistic outlook on life is a perfect match for Ken's brooding nature. She lightens up his mood and apparently captured his heart. Ken makes the most of his genius status and works at the local science lab, trying to come up with cures for various diseases. Meanwhile, Yolei and Ken do not have any children, they are seriously considering adopting a child. Ken feels very strongly about helping out a confused child.   
Cody is the current kendo champion in Japan, and is also a sponsor of prune juice. There have been rumors that he proposed to a swimsuit model, but he steadfastly denies them, dubbing them to be preposterous. In truth, he's "courting" a sweet and modest girl from Tokyo and seems to be pretty happy. He's not quite as serious as he was before, but he still tends to look at the serious side of things instead of the happy. Cody still wants to be a policeman, like his father, but his mother simply won't allow it. Cody's prune juice-loving grandfather passed away a few years ago and Cody was deeply affected. However, Yolei continues to support her childhood friend and Ken joins in as well.   
All in all, we digidestined are all happy with our not-so-exciting-yet-not-too-boring lives. I know we'd all love to be able to see our digimon again, to let our kids meet them, but I know that my daydream is impossible. The only times we were allowed to even see our digimon were when there was evil and danger in our world and in the Digital World.   
I don't want my kid to meet Agumon under dangerous circumstances. 


	2. Chapter 1

**For Our Children**

Chapter 1   
  
"Oh for Heavens sake!" Sora hissed out in pain, "Yamato Ishida, if you don't get your act together you will not KNOW what happiness is again because I will make your life MISERABLE..."   
Matt winced and covered his ears as she gave a cry of pain again. "Alright, alright! Hold on darling..."   
All of a sudden his shirt collar was seized and his face was pulled down close to Sora's sweaty, pain-filled one. "Don't you 'darling' ME mister! GET ME TO THE HOSPITAL NOW!"   
Breathing almost as heavily as his wife, Matt shot up and half-carried, half-dragged Sora towards the door. "Aiko! Kaleb! Come and help me get Mom to the car!" he yelled frantically.   
There was a slamming of doors and two small red-haired children rushed towards the front door. "You need your keys to start the car Daddy," Aiko informed her father solemnly.   
"Uh-uh... Kaleb! Get the keys for me! Hurry!" Matt's head was spinning and he could feel the familiar pounding in his temples. _You'd think that after two kids I'd get used to this process_, he thought to himself.   
Kaleb came running from the kitchen area with the keys and threw them at his dad. "Oh boy! Will Mom scream the whole way there?" he asked excitedly.   
Aiko was a little more concerned and clung to her mother's hand, "Are you going to be okay Mommy? Does it hurt?"   
A weak smile of love for her daughter crossed Sora's face as she squeezed the little hand in her palm. "I'll be fine honey, and you'll have a new brother or sister soon,"   
Sturggling to get Sora out the door, Matt took a deep breath and yanked none too gently. With a squeak of surprise she flew out the door and stumbled in his arms before clutching at her swollen abdomen again. "Kaleb... Kaleb call your Uncle Tai on the cell-phone!" Sora gasped.   
"Okay Mom, I'm on it,"   
~~~   
A black minivan screeched to a halt in the relatively empty hospital parking lot. Makoto climbed out of the passenger's side and looked wonderingly at the stars, and then at his rather agitated father. "Whoa Dad! I've never seen you drive so fast!" Makoto exclaimed in excitement.   
However, his father barely paid attention as he grabbed Makoto's head and ran twoards the door. "Uncle Matt's gotta be extremely stressed out right now," Tai told Makoto urgently, "And I bet Kaleb's looking for someone to play with,"   
Makoto's response was shaking off his dad's hand, "DAD!" he complained loudly, "I'm seven! If you hold my hand Kaleb'll think I'm a sissy!"   
If there was anything that Tai hated, it was the 'I'm too big for this, and I'm too big for that' routine. But right now he didn't feel like reprimanding his son. The two Kamiyas burst into the lobby to the front desk. "S-Sora I-Ishida," Tai panted out in-between breaths.   
The receptionist typed the name into the computer unhurriedly and then pointed disinterestedly to the left. "Through the doors, down the hallway, then turn left. I think a Mr. Ishida's waiting there already," the woman drawled out in a bored tone.   
But Tai had already disappeared through the doors, Makoto close behind. The receptionist only shrugged and went back to sleep.   
When Tai entered the waiting area he almost laughed out loud. Matt was pacing the room, just like he had the first two times only now he had two kids each clinging to one leg. "Kaleb! What're you doing?!" Makoto demanded in horror.   
Seeing his friend, Kaleb immediatley detached himself from his dad. His face was bright red as Makoto regarded him suspiciously. "Uh... nothing! I was comforting Dad, yeah... that's right,"   
"Uncle Tai! Uncle Tai!" Aiko screamed excitedly, running towards him, "Mommy's having a baby! I want to name her Diaper,"   
Laughing, Tai picked the little girl up and hugged her, "Now why do you want to call her that?"   
Aiko looked back at Matt and giggled, "Cuz she's gonna smell like a big ol' stinky diaper!"   
Matt's expression was perplexed, "Aiko! It might be a boy you know,"   
"Then we'll name him Toilet Seat!" she retorted.   
"I give up," Matt sighed, "How in the he-"   
Kaleb and Makoto perked up and gravitated towards Matt. "Are you gonna swear Dad?" Kaleb asked.   
At this point, Tai decided to take charge of the situation, seeing as Matt was barely able to conceal his worry. "Kaleb, Makoto, why don't you go find a vending machine and buy a chocolate bar?"   
"No money Dad," Makoto replied promptly.   
Tai fished a dollar out of his pocket and tossed it towards his son, "Here, now go,"   
The two boys were gone quicker than a wink. Aiko yawned pitifully and made puppy eyes at Matt. "Daddy, can we go home? I'm tired,"   
Holding out his arms for Aiko, Matt smiled tiredly, "As soon as we find out how Mommy is, okay? Why don't you go sleep in the chair?"   
Aiko nodded, hugged her dad, and then curled up in one of the stiff plastic seats. Smiling tenderly at his daughter, Matt draped a blanket over her small form. "Well Tai, third time around. I think this'll be the last," he looked over at his friend, "I don't think I can stand this kind of stress a fourth time,"   
"You're telling me," Tai chuckled, "Once was enough to give me a heart attack!"   
As the two grown men sat next to each other and reminisced about the past, a door swung open. A man in green surgery clothes with a stethescope around his neck and blood on his gloves grinned.   
It was Joe.   
"Matt, you have a son. And guess what? He's the spitting image of you!" he announced happily.   
"A son? A son! And he looks like me!" Matt sprang up from the chair, as did Tai.   
They shook hands, pulled in for a hug, and slapped each other's backs merrily. "I'd join in, but I don't think you'd appreciate blood on your clothes. Matt, why don't you go in? Sora's waiting,"   
Matt was nearly skipping with joy as he strode towards the door. Tai turned to Joe and smiled, "Joe! Man is it great to see you again!"   
"Yup. Always a pleasure. I can't believe I helped Sora give birth! You think I'll be the god-father this time?" Joe joked.   
"Not a chance, buddy, not a chance. This kid's gonna be my god-son!"   
Joe grinned, then his face turned serious again. "You'll never guess what I did yesterday night Tai," he continued on before his friend could blurt out a guess, "I popped the question to Julia, and she said yes! I'm gonna legally adopt Bobby so he'll be my kid!"   
"Whoa, this is too much for me," Tai exclaimed, "Three of my friends get a new kid, and one gets a wife!"   
There were many more backslaps exchanged that night.   
~~~   
"_Puurrr-fect, said the cat,_" a voice growled ominously, "_Puurrr-fect say I. Soon... soon the digidestined will lose their most treasured possessions..._"   
The large figure shifted in its seat, "_I will avenge the death of all evil..._" 


	3. Chapter 2

**For Our Children **

Chapter 2   
  
Large balloons with the words 'It's A Boy!' emblazoned on them floated around Sora's hospital bed, and pots of sweet-smelling flowers and plants were crammed onto what little table space there was. Cards of congratulations were piling up in stacks by the bed, and faces beaming with happiness and good wishes surrounded her. All other guests had been cleared out, and only the digidestined were allowed to stay. Unfortunately, Mimi had been unable to come, but had sent a long, long, long letter of congratulations instead. She had even managed to write in a postscript for everyone else. However, even without Mimi the small hospital room was crammed, everyone was almost on top of each other. Yolei and Ken leaned down to look closer at the baby. "Awww, isn't he cute Ken? What's his name?" Yolei asked.   
"Kentaro, but we'll probably call him Ken," Matt declared proudly.   
Ken, the older Ken of course, looked a trifle pleased that a child had the same name as he did. "He _is_ pretty handsome, isn't he?" Ken observed.   
Sora cradled the baby close to her face and bestowed a motherly kiss on his forehead. "Just like his father," she smiled up at Matt.   
Izzy pushed Yolei and Ken aside so he could see Kentaro. "Prodigious!" he exclaimed, "He really _does_ look like Matt!" He reached out a hand and carefully stroked the golden fuzz covering the infant's head.   
All of the people in the room attempted to crowd around the bed at once. "Look! He's frowning just like Matt used to!" Tai teased his friend.   
"Very funny Tai," Matt replied dryly.   
Nudging his way forward between TK and Joe, Cody smiled shyly down at the little baby. "Sora, can I hold him?" he asked nervously.   
"Geez Cody, you're acting as if this was the first baby you've ever seen!" TK commented.   
The youngest of the digidestined only shrugged and held out his arms as Sora gently lowered baby Kentaro into them. Kentaro yawned and snuggled against the young man's chest happily as he made small gurgling sounds. "He really seems to like you," Kari giggled, "I never knew you were so good with children!"   
The poor guy blushed an alarming shade of red and held Kentaro out to TK, who was closest to him. "It's only one baby, and I only held him for two seconds," he muttered.   
TK and Davis stood cooing over the baby, something that they might not have done in their youth, and the others were tempted to join in. Kari, who's hands were already full with Sakura, edged towards Sora in the bed. "Every time a new baby is born, the baby gets more attention than the mother," she said, making a face.   
Amber eyes glowing with pride and love for her family, Sora only smiled, "I'd do the same,"   
Kari laughed, "Yeah, I guess I would too,"   
~~~   
_Ding dong._   
"Get the door!" Yolei yelled to Ken.   
Ken peered out the eyehole in the door and blinked in surprise. "So soon?," he said softly in surprise. He turned to yell at Yolei, who was cooking in the kitchen. "Honey? You better come here. Trust me, you'll want to be here when I open this door,"   
There was a clang of kitchen utensils, and Yolei came running out from the kitchen. "What is it?" she grumbled.   
She was slightly surprised when Ken grabbed her hand and squeezed tightly. "Look inviting, friendly, and loving," Ken told Yolei, not unkindly.   
Yolei grinned at him, "Aren't I always?"   
"I'm not kidding Yolei," he said seriously, "Be nice,"   
"Ergh…FINE! You should really stop being so serious sometimes…"   
The doorbell rang again, and someone pounded on the door. Yolei reached forward, grasped the doorknob, and opened the door.   
~~~   
Davis and Kari enjoyed their quality time together immensely. They enjoyed it even more when Sakura was asleep and there was some peace and quiet in their cozy apartment. Pictures in brightly coloured frames decorated the blue walls. Kari had insisted on the pictures, and Davis had insisted on the blue paint, so they had compromised. The pictures were actually a nice touch to their living room. The largest picture was of course a family picture taken of Davis, Kari, and Sakura a few months after her birth. Underneath were pictures of friends and family, and there was even a picture of Gatomon and Veemon, grinning like idiots. Many of their friends who were not associated with the digital world marveled at how realistic the picture seemed. At these times, Davis and Kari exchanged glances and smiled, resisting the urge to laugh out loud.   
"Mmmmm…you know what I could go for right now?" Kari said contentedly.   
Davis looked down at her and shook his head, "Nuh-uh, not tonight,"   
It was obvious that Kari was not pleased, "That's _not_ what I meant! Why-oh-why did I have to marry such a sick-minded boy hiding in a man's body?" she groaned.   
"Because," Davis grinned evily, "you love me,"   
Kari yawned in mock boredom, "Debatable. But we'll discuss that later. What would really hit the spot right now is a cup of hot chocolate. Wanna go make one for me?"   
Davis leaned forward to kiss her affectionately on the cheek. "The things I do for you,"   
She wrapped her arms around his neck and smiled. "Am I not worth it?" she teased, and then pushed him towards the kitchen, "Now go make me my hot chocolate!"   
As Davis walked towards the kitchen, the phone rang. It's shrill ring cut through the comfortable stillness, and Kari snatched up the phone. "Moshi moshi? Motomiya residence,"   
"K-K-Kari?" a voice stammered.   
Kari's brows knit together, "Yolei? What's wrong?"   
"I…I…we lost…" Yolei's voice indicated she was on the verge of tears.   
"Yolei, calm down! Take a breath and start again slowly, okay?"   
It seemed to work as Yolei took in a deep breath and released it. "We…Ken and I…adopted a child. Seemed to start off well…" her voice cracked and she started crying.   
"Yolei? Yolei!" Kari yelled into the phone, "What happened? Is someone hurt?"   
She could barely hear bits and pieces of the conversation on the other side, but some was audible, "Can't…you tell…too much…"   
"Yolei…must…wrong…"   
"Somebody? Anybody?" Kari tried again.   
Davis, who had abandoned the hot chocolate, rushed to her side. "Kari? What's wrong? Who is it?"   
Finally, someone picked up the phone, "Hello? Kari?"   
"Ken!" Kari said, relief flooding her voice, "I thought you were hurt or something,"   
"Look, put me on the phone with Davis, could you?"   
Kari nodded, even though she knew Ken couldn't see her, and handed the phone wordlessly to Davis. With a worried look on his face, Davis accepted the phone. "Ken! What?! You adopted the kid? That's grea- What?! WHAT?! You called… Well yeah, yeah! But…all of them? Even Mimi? Why'd you call me last? Sakura? Oh God Sakura!"   
The phone clattered to the floor as Davis sprinted for his daughter's room. He flipped the switch and lights flooded the room. The room that he and Kari had so painstakingly prepared for their baby. The crib. The crib that he and TK had built together, had bonded over.   
The crib that was empty. Sakura was nowhere to be seen.   
No little form half-hidden by the blanket, no small head covered in fine sugar-brown hair, no little button nose, no ears curved just like his. She was gone. "No…" he whispered softly, "No, give her back. I want her back!"   
He dropped to his knees, a tear tracking down his face while he pounded a fist against the crib. Running footsteps told him that Kari had heard, and that she was worried. She paused in the doorway, her eyes wide with disbelief. She glanced at Davis on the floor, and then at the empty crib. "No…" her voice was hoarse with emotion, "No…Davis, tell me this is a nightmare. Tell me my baby's safe, tell me she's still in that crib, tell me…tell me…"   
She collapsed against the doorway of the room, sliding to the ground as she hid her face in her hands. Davis was embracing her in seconds and she cried into his shoulder. "Ken…Ken said something about e-mail…" she choked out between sobs.   
"E-mail…?"   
With a quick kiss on his wife's forehead, he rushed to the computer and turned it on. "C'mon, c'mon…" he urged the computer, "Faster, c'mon…" The e-mail window automatically popped up.   
There was one new message.   
Without hesitation he opened it, and stared unbelievingly.   
"Kari! KARI! We have to get to Tai's place,"   
"No, NO!" Kari's voice was shrill and frantic, "She has to be here! She has to be somewhere! Maybe she…maybe she wanted us and tried to crawl to us…"   
Though troubled, Davis kept his wits about him, "Listen to me. Sakura's not here. Although someone could have kidnapped her, it's doubtful. Ken and Yolei have called everyone else, even Mimi, and someone they love is missing. It might be a new evil in the Digital World,"   
"You're telling me that my baby, my poor defenseless baby, is in the hands of a deranged digimon?!" Kari almost shrieked, "It's not possible! It can't be! I…I'll tear that thing to pieces if he does _anything_ to Sakura,"   
Kari was flailing around frantically, but Davis only wrapped her in his arms. "No! Let go! I have to go after her, I have to get her back!" she screamed, pounding against his chest.   
And then she slapped him. Hard.   
A red colour blossomed in his affected cheek, but he only continued to hug her. "Listen to me, you have to calm down. If we go to Tai's the others will be there and we can come up with some way to get Sakura and the others back. Tai's probably calling the police right now, and the sooner we get there, the sooner we'll get our Sakura back. But Kari, you have to calm down,"   
Shock and shame washed over Kari's face, "I'm so sorry!" she gasped, "I slapped you! I didn't mean to, I was just so worried, and confused, and terrified…I couldn't control myself! Oh Davis, you know I wouldn't hurt you on purpose, right?"   
Davis smiled and only hugged her tighter, "Of course. I love you Kari, and I love Sakura too. I'd do anything to keep you two safe. Let's get to Tai's now, okay?"   
Nodding, Kari buried her face in his neck, "Okay," she said quietly, "But I feel so weak, I can't remember how to walk…"   
Davis gently guided his wife out the door, and the computer was left on, forgotten. The message scrawled across the screen was bold and clear. YOU WILL PAY WITH YOUR MOST TREASURED POSSESSIONS…


	4. Chapter 3

**For Our Children **

Chapter 3   
"Hello? Is anyone there? Dad! Dad where are you?" Makoto yelled into the surrounding darkness.   
It was no use, no one was there and he was all alone. He slumped against the rocky wall to his left, listening to the lonely sound of dripping water. _Drip, drip, drip…_ it was enough to drive anyone crazy. "Dad…" he whimpered, "Daddy…"   
Where was he, and why had he been dropped in this godforsaken place? Makoto shivered as he tried to recount the details in his mind. He had been in bed, dreaming of being just like his dad when he grew up. Nothing out of the ordinary there. Scrunching his eyes tighter, Makoto thought harder. All he remembered was falling, as if he was falling off a cliff. He opened his eyes and squinted through the inky darkness. There didn't appear to be any break in the wall, but then he couldn't be sure, he could barely see his feet. He held his hand in front of his face and wiggled his fingers. Nothing. "Ah…this is pointless!" he said in frustration.   
There was a soft sound, as if someone had landed in a pile of straw, and sure enough there was a plaintive cry. A baby was crying! Makoto ran towards the sound and felt around in the straw stack. The crying was getting louder and he just wanted to stop the sound. Finally he felt some fabric and grabbed at the small baby. He picked it up gently, just like how Aunt Kari had taught him, and brought its face close to his so he could see who it was. "Sakura?" he said in surprise, "What're you doing here?"   
More people seemed to materialize from nowhere and dropped onto the straw stack, which seemed to grow larger with each new person.   
"Ouch! Where am I? Mommy?"   
"Aiko! Is that you?"   
"Goodness, do I hear a baby crying?"   
"What's going on here?"   
"I'm afraid of the dark! Someone turn on the light!"   
"Azura! You have the light, remember?"   
Before long a flashlight was switched on, and Makoto blinked as the light shone directly into his eyes. "Stop it!" he demanded crossly.   
"Oops!" the voice giggled, "I'm sorry. Who are you?"   
"I'm a Kamiya," he puffed his chest out proudly, but Sakura fussed at the movement so he rocked her to quiet her down.   
Everyone gathered around the light and looked at each other's faces. The first one to really recognize Makoto was Kaleb. "Oi! Makoto, where are we?" he asked. Makoto only shrugged, "Dunno. I just dropped here, and then Sakura did too, and then all of you came,"   
There was a shrill cry from the pile of straw, followed by rustling as one of the adults retrieved the crying infant. "Who's this?" the woman asked.   
"His name's Kentaro," Aiko said, tugging at the woman's sleeve, "He's my brother. Who are you?"   
The woman bent down, "I'm Adelia, do you remember me? I'm your Uncle TK's friend,"   
Makoto handed Sakura to another adult and borrowed the flashlight from the little girl named Azura. "One, two, three…" he counted each person in the room, "…ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen. Did I miss anyone?"   
There were no objections, so Makoto returned to flashlight to Azura again. "Why are we all here?" another adult inquired. She was considerably older than the other two adults, and a man about her age had an arm around her.   
"Mr. and Mrs. Izumi?" another voice questioned.   
"Yes, that's us,"   
"This is way too weird…" a boy's voice stated.   
Everyone was in agreement.   
~~~   
The Kamiya apartment was filled with miserable digidestined. Joe was on his cell phone consoling his fiancée while Izzy and Cody were attempting to come up with plans, but utterly failing. No one else seemed to have the spirit or energy to even try. Matt and Sora clung to each other as if their world was ending, and occasionally exchanged a few whispered words. Tai sat in his straight-backed chair and scribbled furiously on a note-pad as he argued into a phone. Huddled on the couch, Davis absentmindedly stroked Kari's hair as she continued to weep silently into his shirt, his own eyes suspiciously wet. TK was busy helping Ken comfort Yolei, who seemed beside herself with grief. "We only had Kazuo for three hours! Three hours and that nasty, horrible, unfeeling creep took him away!" she sobbed.   
There wasn't a smile in the whole room. "You don't understand! They didn't run away!" Tai yelled into the phone, frustrated, "No…yes! Yes, thirteen! No, that's not ridiculous! Look, it's not some alien abduction…what?! You…I just want to let you know that I've lost ALL respect for the police here in Odaiba!" he slammed the phone down and then picked it up again, dialing another number.   
He pressed the speakerphone button and placed the phone back in its cradle. The sound of the ringing filled the room, and many of the digidestined looked curiously at Tai. "Who are you calling?" TK asked.   
"Mimi," Tai said shortly, not having the patience to explain his actions at the moment, "Just hold on,"   
Finally the phone was picked up. "Hello?" said a voice, decidedly thick with emotion, "Lambkiss residence,"   
"Hi, David? This is Taichi Kamiya. Can I talk to Mimi?"   
The voice paused for a moment and there was a heavy sigh, "She's really not fit to talk right now,"   
Tai rubbed his temples with his fingers. David didn't understand the importance of this, but then how could he? "Please, I'm begging you to put her on the phone. I just have to ask her a few things, as a friend,"   
"Well," there was some hesitation, "I suppose so. Hold on,"   
Everyone in the room was now looking in Tai's direction, "Why are you calling Mimi?" Sora queried.   
"My computer's on the fritz, and you're all here. She's the only other one who would receive an e-mail," Tai explained impatiently.   
"Mimi Tachikawa," Mimi identified herself on the phone. She had opted to keep her maiden name instead of taking on Lambkiss.   
"Mimi! It's Tai. Can you do me a favour?"   
"Tai! Do you know what's going on?" she asked hopefully.   
"No, we're still trying to think," he looked around at the depressed digidestined who were really doing no thinking at all, "Well, sort of…Listen, I need you to do me a favour. Check your e-mail again, see if there's any new messages,"   
"Alright… Tai? Is everyone okay?" she asked in concern.   
"We've been better, but we'll survive," Sora called out, "As soon as we get our loved ones back, we'll be just fine,"   
"I know exactly how you feel. It's like the meaning has left my life. Okay, two new messages…" her voice quavered a bit as they all heard to clicking of the mouse. The seconds ticked by slowly, and Izzy was heard muttering how much faster it would've been if Mimi had used his program.   
Finally, "Whoops, just junk mail. Let me try the other one," Mimi's voice was growing increasingly worried. "Okay, here it is. I… David!"   
"Mimi, what is it!" Cody demanded.   
Everyone turned to look at the normally quiet and well-mannered man. "I'm sorry," he dropped his head in shame, "I'm just really worried about Keiko. She and I were supposed to celebrate our two-year anniversary since we first started… seeing each other."   
Izzy put a comforting hand on Cody's shoulder, "Don't worry," he told his troubled friend.   
"But honey, I don't understand…" David's soothing voice was heard again.   
Mimi's tone was much more upset, "Please, please just read it,"   
"If it means so much to you. But we have more important things to worry about, like the disappearance of our children," his voiced hardened.   
"It's important David, it is! But…I can't bring myself to read it,"   
Hearing this, Sora and Yolei broke down again. "Is it that horrible?" Kari murmured to herself.   
Mimi was begging David by now, and it sounded as if he had relented. There was a sound of someone clearing his throat, and then:   
"Digidestined: The clock strikes one, the danger's begun   
The clock strikes two, there's danger for you   
The clock strikes three, it's time to appease me   
The clock strikes four, forever closes the door   
The clock strikes five, no one's left alive"   
Immediately, Tai looked towards the clock and grimaced. It was midnight. They only had six hours to rescue their loved ones. "Ridiculous!" David snorted, "Mimi we have to call the police again. What if it's a kidnapping?"   
Apparently, Mimi was crying and had grabbed the phone back from her husband, "Guys, I'm going to the digital world," she said firmly through her tears, "I'll wait until 12:15, and if you're not there I'm going by myself,"   
"Wait! Mimi how are you gonna get there?" Joe asked in alarm.   
"I don't know, but I just know I can do it. I'll meet you there," and she hung up.   
Yolei was already running towards Tai's room, where the digivices were kept. When the danger had finally been over so many years ago, the digidestined had wanted to keep their own digivices. "No," Tai had said, "We should keep them together. If we keep them ourselves, they're bound to be lost when moving, or something along those lines. We should keep them together, then if there's an emergency we'll all be able to access them,"   
Now they were all glad they had listened to him. "Mimi won't be able to get to the digital world without her digivice," TK pointed out to everyone, "There's no way she can!"   
Sora only shook her head knowingly, "With the love she has for both her children, it's possible. Remember Gennai told us that the crests and tags were only there to help the process? The power is inside of us,"   
"We should still take them along," Izzy suggested, "Any sort of help could save us time,"   
"Don't forget the D-Terminals, the data for our digi eggs are still there," Davis called out to Yolei, "We'll need them,"   
Remembering that her brother had looked dismayed and sorrowful, Kari turned to look for him. He was in his chair, scribbling away at the notepad again. "Tai, what are you doing?" she asked in sisterly concern.   
Without a word, he held the notepad up to her and wandered off. She watched him walk off, then looked down at the notepad. In truth the writing was messy, but Kari had spent enough time with her brother to interpret it. Written hastily on the paper was a list of the missing persons, and who they were connected to:   
Matt and Sora – Kaleb, Aiko, Kentaro   
Joe – Bobby   
Izzy – Mr. and Mrs. Izumi   
Mimi – Clover, Azura   
Kari and Davis – Sakura   
Ken and Yolei – Kazuo   
TK – Adelia   
Cody – Keiko   
Tai – Makoto   
Kari flipped the page and read the chilling message that had been addressed to them all. A hand touched her shoulder, and she spun around to face Davis. "What's wrong?" he asked.   
"Tai," Kari sighed, "He's always telling me Makoto's his reason for living, ever since they lost Tamika. Everyone's main reason for living has gone," she looked to Joe, "Well, at least Joe's fiancée is safe…"   
TK joined them, a look of grim determination on his face. "We're leaving now. Izzy fiddled with the computer and he claims that it's fixed. Are you guys ready?"   
With his arm around Kari, Davis nodded. "Are you okay TK? You've been comforting everyone, but no one's comforted you,"   
TK mustered up a smile, "I'm about the same as everyone else Davis, thanks for asking,"   
Everyone gathered around the computer, and Ken handed out crests, digivices, and D-terminals. Tai looked to his sister, "Do you still have the notepad?" he asked.   
She nodded, holding it up so he could see. "Good. Keep a hold of it," he instructed her, and then turned to everyone else. "There are no longer digiports, but if we really wish and believe that we can get to the digital world, maybe it'll happen. Once we get there, we'll try to find Agumon and the others. Ready?"   
The others nodded simultaneously. "Ready," they said.   
Most closed their eyes, while others stared intently at the computer screen. Although their tactics were different, their thoughts were all the same. As their minds and hearts all worked to form a gateway to the other world, a light started to emit from the computer. Weak, at first, but it grew steadily stronger as the thoughts of the digidestined became more concentrated. "Digiport open," Cody mouthed.   
A flash of light enveloped them, and in the blink of an eye they were gone.


	5. Chapter 4

**For Our Children**   
Chapter 4   
  
It was lucky that digimon never die, or else Agumon and all the rest would have been long gone. Almost three billion years had passed for them, and that number is just an approximation of what it could be. Curiously, they had never forgotten their friends and partners, and not a day passed when they didn't think about them. For the first two billion years they had stayed together, but eventually even Patamon had deemed it pointless. So they had resigned to the fact that they would never again see their human friends and split up. Each went to the area where they were happiest, and coincidentally some of them went to places where they had been happiest with their friend. For example, Patamon had journeyed to the Primary Village where he and TK had had a fun time caring for the little digimon babies.   
Palmon had retired to the forest where she had met Mimi, where she had been reunited with Mimi, and had accompanied Mimi in feeding hungry digimon. True to what she had learned from her friend and what she had learned from herself, Palmon helped any digimon in distress. On this particular day Palmon was busy guiding a group of lost digimon through the forest while giving them the full tour. "And to your left is a group of Poyomon playing a game, and…oh look! A bunch of cute Tanemons! You know, I used to be a Tanemon…"   
And then a feeling stirred within Palmon's heart, wherever it might be placed. A memory, a sweet memory, a good memory, a memory of…   
Mimi.   
Faithful Palmon's heart gave a giant leap. For some unknown reason she had been able to sense Mimi's presence! It was all she could do to keep from sprinting away, but she still had to finish guiding these digimon through the forest. Instead of taking them on the roundabout scenic route, she decided to take them straight through to the other side. "To your left are some plants, to your right are some trees, and straight ahead is the exit to the forest. Thank you for visiting!" and with that Palmon disappeared over the next hill.   
Across the digital world, eleven other hearts experienced the same emotions and memories, each one leaping up from their everyday duties and running towards the place where the feeling felt strongest.   
~~~   
Time had been kind to Mimi Tachikawa so far, she looked to be around her mid-twenties when in truth she had entered her thirties already. Her agent insisted she keep monitoring her physical appearance, even though Mimi had wanted to give up the acting business to take care of her children. "But if you ever want to go back into full-time acting, you won't have to work or anything! You'll be in great shape already," her agent had argued.   
Mimi had decided to humor her, mainly because she had become tired of the daily phone calls, and David had started to become irritated. David was always irritated about one thing or another. But this wasn't any time to think about her marriage problems. Now was the time to concentrate on her children. Of course, it was going to be hard for David to forgive her for running to the digital world, he wouldn't understand and she wouldn't be able to make him understand. Tapping her foot impatiently, Mimi glanced at her watch again. The digital numbers informed her that it was ten minutes past midnight. Brushing a strand of hair out of her face, Mimi looked off in the distance. It was empty of any human presence. "I really hope they come. What am I thinking? Of course they'll come!" Mimi paused as she realized what she was doing, "Oh great, now I'm talking to myself! I wish they'd hurry up…"   
She shivered despite the sunlight shining down on her. It was strange how it was daytime here, but night time back in the real world. _I wonder if Palmon's still here_, she thought to herself, _Time passes so differently here… it must have been at least a million years._   
"Mimi! It's us!" an excited voice announced.   
Mimi spun around to see twelve digimon running towards her. Leading the charge was Palmon, who looked absolutely thrilled to see her closest friend. "Palmon!" Mimi was overjoyed to see her friend again.   
With a burst of speed, Palmon catapulted into Mimi's open arms. "I'm so happy to see you! I knew you'd come back someday!" the digimon exclaimed excitedly.   
Veemon and Agumon skidded to a stop in front of the two reunited friends, confusion written clearly on their faces. "Where's Davis?" Veemon questioned.   
Palmon was dropped gently, and Mimi bent down to face Veemon. "You felt them? You know they're here?"   
All the digimon nodded, their bodies wriggling with unleashed excitement. "Good," Mimi breathed out, "I knew they'd come. I have to tell you something, we're not here to visit. We're here on a rescue mission,"   
"For who?" Biyomon asked, "Who needs to be rescued?"   
"Our loved ones," Mimi murmured softly, sorrow resonating in every syllable, "We're here for our family, for our children, for our lives,"   
"Your lives?" Patamon asked curiously, "But you're not in any danger,"   
Before Mimi could reply, Gatomon explained what the human had meant, "Their families are their lives Patamon. It's because they love them a lot,"   
At this the digimon sobered, looking uneasily at each other. Palmon, however, seemed to miss the point. "You have children Mimi? I've gotta meet them!"   
A grateful smile for Palmon's ignorance crossed Mimi's face. The little digimon knew how to keep her friend's mind off troublesome things. "My eldest is just like David, he's my husband. She's a practical little thing, always needing answers to her questions. Her name's Clover,"   
"Like the vegetation kind of clover?" Gabumon asked.   
"Yes, her eyes are green like them, so David wanted to name her that. Azura, she's my youngest, is more like me. She's willing to help others, and she's very cheerful," Mimi looked off into the horizon, and then down at her watch. 12:25.   
"I have to go. I have to go find them…" she stood up, her expression grim. Someone shouted from a near distance, "Not without us! I'm going to be there when my children are freed!"   
Gabumon's ears perked up, and he faced the direction from where the voice had come. "Matt!"   
And through the grass the digidestined ran, considerably older than when their digimon had last seen them. The reunion was sweet but short, since there were more pressing matters. A quick hug and a few fond words were exchanged between each digimon and partner before their attention was once again concentrated on the kidnapping of family members. "What're we going to do Tai?" Agumon posed the question that most everyone was thinking.   
Pulling out his digivice, Tai showed everyone the weak signal it was receiving. "That's Makoto, I'm sure of it. As long as he keeps wishing for me to come, and as long as I remember the love I have for him, maybe it'll keep us on the right track,"   
Everyone nodded, and Sora curled her fingers around her tag and crest. "Loving is the easy part," she stated.   
A red light pulsed from within her fist, and she smiled encouragingly at everyone. "We need all the love you have," her smile became wry, "I'm a bit rusty at helping Biyomon digivolve,"   
Matt, with his arm around her shoulders, pulled her closer and kissed the top of her head. "My love for you, our children, my brother, and my friends,"   
Everyone followed suite, and the glow grew brighter with each utter of love. "It's good to feel your love again Sora," Biyomon commented.   
A burst of red light surround the small pink bird, and the light expanded in diameter as the figure concealed inside appeared to grow larger. At first the outline of the large shape was faint and blurry, and then Biyomon's shape slowly grew and morphed to fit the outline. "I don't remember digivolving to be quite like this…" Izzy mumbled in awe, "It seemed much simpler,"   
There was a rumbling sound came from within the light, "Biyomon digivolve to Birdramon. Birdramon digivolve to Garudamon!"   
The magnificent bird type digimon burst through the light, it's enormous bulk casting a shadow over everyone. "Garudamon, it's nice to see you again!" Sora voiced.   
Garudamon stretched her wings out, as if testing their ability to fly, then cocked her head to one side. "Climb into my hands," she commanded in her deep rumbling voice, "We must rescue your families, every minute counts,"   
"Thank you," Yolei said quietly, an unusual thing for the outspoken woman.   
Ken touched her arm lightly and allowed himself to be hugged, "Yes, thank you very much,"   
With all the digidestined and digimon gathered in her capable hands, Garudamon took flight, following the weak signals from the digivices.   
~~~   
Despite the complete darkness in the cave-like structure, those imprisoned in it were soon well acquainted. Kazuo, the real outcast in the group, had become fast friends with Makoto, Kaleb, and Bobby while the three small girls played house. "Another cookie?" Aiko asked her newfound friends primly.   
"No thank you, I'll have some tea though," Clover responded.   
"Would you like a cookie?" an eager Azura asked.   
Giving the older girl an exasperated look, Aiko continued in their charade. "Here's the tea Miss Lambkiss. Why, that's a very pretty necklace you're wearing!"   
Azura squinted into the dark, "How can you see?" she demanded curiously, "It's so dark in here!"   
Both Clover and Aiko sighed in defeat.   
Meanwhile, Mr. and Mrs. Izumi were busy discussing their current situation with Keiko and Adelia. The two younger women cradled the sleeping Sakura and Kentaro in their arms, smiling tenderly at them every once in awhile. Secretly, each was wishing for their own child to love, but if asked they would not have admitted it. "So you're saying that we might be in another world?" Adelia's tone was one of disbelief.   
"Yes, I believe so," Mrs. Izumi answered, "Izzy's friend Tento came from some other world. My husband and I both think that it's possible that we've been taken hostage here,"   
A small whimper escaped from Keiko's lips, and she snuggled Kentaro closer. "I do wish that someone would turn on the lights. I feel that if we could see our surroundings I'd be able to bear this horrible situation that much better,"   
"I know how you feel," Mr. Izumi said comfortingly, "It's hard to sit still when you don't know what's going on,"   
"How long do you think we've been here?" a voice inquired.   
The adults turned to look at Bobby, who had managed to find his way over to them. "I'm not sure, I can't see my watch…"   
"I can!" Kazuo exclaimed excitedly, "My new Mom and Dad gave me a digital watch that can glow!" he pressed a button on his watch, and sure enough the screen of the watch lit up.   
"Lemme see!" Kaleb and Makoto said at the same time.   
The three boys crowded around Kazuo so they could see the time. "Wow, it's almost one o'clock in the morning!" Bobby said in surprise, "Mom's never let me stay up so late!"   
The four adults smiled, though they were unable to see each other, "It's good that the children see this as an adventure. If they realized the situation, I don't know how we'd deal with it," Adelia commented.   
"Well, let's only be happy for our good luck then," laughed Mrs. Izumi, "even if we're down on our luck with everything else! Well, we might as well settle the kids down to sleep. Their parents won't be too happy if they find out we took poor care of their little ones!"   
The adults hustled the reluctant children to bed, and soon they were nestled in the straw pile, once it had been located. "Goodnight, and thanks for taking care of us," Clover yawned sleepily.   
"Yeah, thanks," Makoto echoed before drifting off to sleep.   
The adults, who had taken possession of Azura's flashlight, sat close to the pile to keep a watch on the children. The watch that Kazuo wore beeped once to inform them that it was now one o'clock and everyone snuggled down in contentment. Unknown to them, a stream of water seeped into the room through a hole drilled into the wall.


	6. Chapter 5

**For Our Children**   
Chapter 5   
  
"Danger's starting for them,"   
Everyone looked towards Joe, fear in their faces. The pupils of Cody's eyes grew large, "You mean…"   
Joe nodded, "It's one o'clock on my watch,"   
Anxious eyes locked onto digivices, but the signals grew no weaker. Everyone heaved a sigh of relief, except for Ken who only looked as if something had dawned on him. "There's one thing I don't understand. If time usually passes slower in our world, why is it that we're still rushing? Shouldn't we have a year's worth of time?"   
"But we can't be sure," Izzy supplied, "We can't risk not hurrying. We don't know if this evil being is timing us by our world, or the digital world. The only thing we can follow is our watches,"   
"I see your point," Ken acknowledged.   
"You don't think anything really horrible is happening to them, do you?" Kari asked fearfully.   
Tai merely shook his head at this sister's concern. "No, nothing they can't survive,"   
"Why do you say that?" Davis asked anxiously, "The danger's supposed to be there,"   
Silence met his waiting ears before TK spoke up, "They have to survive. If they were truly threatened and did… perish," he paused for a minute, "Well then we wouldn't go to him. We would only grieve and stop trying. The message said that the danger would start. The only time when we lose hope is at five," he grimaced at the thought.   
The digimon exchanged looks of concern, they had never seen their partners so depressed, not even when the world was about to end. In times of desperation they had stood strong, unrelenting against the evil until all was safe again. But now, it was as if their spirits had been extinguished. Gatomon was curled up close to Kari, trying to keep the young woman's hopes up. The bearer of hope was being comforted by Patamon, and he seemed to be the most dejected and hopeless one of all. During that long silent ride, with Tai at the helm, there was much time for reflection.   
~~~   
Makoto awoke to the soft splashing of water against a hard surface and the thin wail of a baby. He opened his eyes to see nothing but darkness, and then remembered his situation. "Mr. Izumi? Kaleb? Are you awake?"   
There was a grumbled reply and some shifting in the haystack. "Makoto, is that you?" Mr. Izumi asked sleepily.   
"Do you hear water?" Makoto questioned.   
"I'll check it out," Mr. Izumi mumbled.   
He stepped off of the haystack and splashed through the water. "Water?" he said softly to himself, not wanting to scare the others, "What in the-"   
He felt around the walls again. No opening. He knelt down and felt along the bottom of the wall, where it met the floor, until he found the hole. Water was rushing out from it, and Mr. Izumi knew that if it continued to do so, the water would fill the room. He walked back as calmly as he could back to the straw stack, knowing that if he showed panic the children would follow suite. Makoto was already watching him anxiously. "What is it Mr. Izumi?"   
"Don't worry about anything, go back to sleep and I'll wake you up later," he reassured the worried boy.   
Makoto nodded and drifted back to sleep. Meanwhile, Mr. Izumi was busy waking up the adults, who he hoped would be more calm about the situation. When Mrs. Izumi regarded the situation, her mind was fairly boggled. "Oh dear, this isn't good," she said in concern.   
Adelia and Keiko immediately tried to find anything floatable when they realized the situation. "We'll have to figure out which kids can swim. But none of them will be able to tread water for very long…" Adelia noted.   
"And the babies won't be able to swim at all," Keiko pointed out.   
Mrs. Izumi was busy searching through the children's pockets for anything floatable, but there was nothing. "The children will have to take turns on our back, and we'll just have to be careful that their heads are always above the water," Mrs. Izumi said calmly, "But let's try to make it seem like a game. I don't believe we should worry their poor little hearts, they miss their parents so much already,"   
The others made sounds of agreement. "We should sleep," Mr. Izumi suggested, "Save our strength for later. Let the children sleep too, they won't get much opportunity for it later…"   
Once again, the four adults curled up in the haystack, but this time they were all too aware of the sloshing of water against the wall.   
~~~   
_"You know that I care about you Kari…but I…I"   
"But what?"   
"I… nevermind,"   
Kari sighed. She had really thought she had broken through the "I'm-afraid-to-share-my-feelings" shell, but TK had disappointed her yet again. She had always thought that someday he would be able to tell her how he felt about her, but he hadn't even said those three words when proposing. She knew he tried, but no matter how many times he tried he could never do it. At first, Kari had thought it to be cute, but now she was unsure if her feelings for him were returned. "TK, I can't go through with this if you can't tell my how you feel about me,"   
A pained look crossed TK's face, this wasn't the first time they had had this argument. He had been avoiding the moment for as long as possible. However, Kari simply couldn't wait any longer, she wanted to know. She HAD to know. "Kari… I… " he paused.   
She waited patiently, knowing that time would give him courage. TK gulped, his Adam's apple quivering, looking as if he wanted to say something, but couldn't. Instead, he only stammered, "I… you know Kari… I just, I… I can't say it!"   
The look Kari gave him was one of sympathy, as if her heart went out to him. His heart hammered inside his chest. Maybe she would forgive and forget?   
Kari's lips tightened into a small smile. She couldn't bear to have him edge away from the subject AGAIN. She loved him, but couldn't assume that he felt the same way. The smile dropped out of sight, "TK, I love you, but I can't go through with this. I'm sorry," and with that she slipped a ring off her finger.   
His eyes widened with disbelief as she placed it in his hand, manually curled his fingers around it, and then turned to leave. He watched her retreating figure, and then looked down at his curled fist. "I love you Kari Kamiya," he whispered, knowing she couldn't hear._   
TK woke with a start. Cradled in Garudamon's hands, most of the digidestined had been lulled to sleep, and he had been no exception. But Tai was still standing at the tips of Garudamon's fingers, occasionally shouting directions so she could hear. TK glanced at Kari, asleep in Davis' arms. An expression of content was on her face, she was happy with life the way it was. She had a wonderful husband and a beautiful baby girl, and he did not wish that it should be any other way. At least, he didn't fully wish it. Sometimes he regretted not being able to say those words to her in days gone by, but there was no use dwelling on the past because there's no way to change it. He often wondered if Kari ever regretted breaking off the engagement, if she was ever angry at herself for doing so. Maybe a few years back she had regretted it, but it wasn't likely now. He felt a pang of guilt for thinking about Kari when Adelia was in danger. He loved Adelia and wasn't afraid to say so, thanks to Kari.   
"You're awake," Tai's voice interrupted his thoughts.   
TK looked up at the older man, then moved towards him. "Is the signal any weaker?"   
Tai shook his head, "If anything, it's stronger. But we're wasting too much time. It's about one-thirty and we're only still looking for them,"   
"What else can we do?"   
"Find them," Tai said firmly, "If we find them we can go home and never have them endangered again,"   
"You know they'll encounter lots of danger in their lives," TK told him gently, not wanting to shatter the dream world that Tai was living in.   
"Not while I'm alive," Tai muttered fiercely.   
TK's expression softened, "You can't protect him from everything. Makoto's a smart boy, and he'll make decisions for himself,"   
"I promised Tamika I would take care of him," Tai murmured, dropping the 'determined Dad' act, "I promised her. If anything happens to him she won't forgive me. I won't forgive myself,"   
"Just bear with us Tai. If our fearless leader loses courage, I'm not sure Gogglehead #2 will be able to step up and take his place," TK joked.   
Tai only glared mockingly at his friend, "Not funny,"


	7. Chapter 6

**For Our Children**

Chapter 6   
  
"Oh woe is me,   
They have not come.   
What can it be?   
My feet are numb.   
Had I too much faith?   
Come, will they not?   
They won't confront their wraith?   
Of this I had not thought," the grumbling voice sighed after finishing his poetic thoughts. "Lousy digidestined, I thought they were more capable,"   
There were muffled cries from underneath the floor, and the digimon snapped his fingers in a bored fashion. A scurrying sound immediately followed before the echo of the snap could die away. Millions upon millions of small rat-like digimon crowded into the room, each sitting on its haunches when it could no longer get any closer to the throne. "We hear and obey," the lead rat bowed.   
"Open the hatch," the large digimon commanded, "I like to hear the pleas of salvation,"   
All the digimon lowered their heads in respect, "As you wish Meshugamon," they recited as one voice.   
Meshugamon only let a menacing grin dominate his ugly features as the small digimon used all the power they possessed to push aside the heavy stone cover. It was hardly a 'hatch', as Meshugamon had called it, and each digimon was almost thoroughly exhausted by the time it had been pushed aside, leaving a gaping hole in the floor. One of them gave a dismayed squeak as it fell down the hole, and a faint splash followed soon after. "Please! Somebody help!" the voice of a little girl wailed.   
Satisfied, Meshugamon leaned back in his plushy throne and basked in the cries for help, eyes closed in delight. And then they ceased. A calm voice broke through the wails, "Now children, you don't want look all sad when your parents come, do you? Cheer up!"   
"Yeah, listen to Mrs. Izumi!"   
"Aiko, stop it! Are you trying to strangle me?"   
"But Daddy always play horsies with me in the water. Why can't you Kaleb?"   
"The water's not too deep yet, why don't you kids play awhile,"   
Meshugamon frowned, his expression troubled. There were no shrieks of terror, instead there were only shrieks of laughter. "No, it's wrong," he growled, "It's all wrong. They should be terrified,"   
"Is it time yet?" the lead rat asked eagerly, tail twitching in anticipation.   
Glancing down at the watch encircling his massive wrist, Meshugamon's face darkened. Once again, an evil grin plastered itself on his face. "Almost time. Just be sure to be there at two. Bring all those that you can and do not fail me,"   
"We will not fail you, Meshugamon," the rats bowed out of sight.   
Reclining as much as his enormous bulk would allow him, Meshugamon sighed once again. "If those digidestined fail to pass my trivial bit of test, I will be greatly disappointed in my predecessors of evil. If only they had not been defeated, my great mind would not go to waste,"   
~~~   
"Wake up," Ken told Yolei, shaking her shoulder gently.   
Blinking sleepily while Ken brushed the hair out of her eyes, Yolei managed to throw a look of questioning to everyone. "Where…I…" she looked around at all the faces, and then looked down off the edge of Garudamon's hands. "Oh," she concluded, realization dawning on her features.   
"It's almost two," TK informed her seriously, "We want to be ready for any trouble we might encounter,"   
"No one will hurt Yolei as long as I'm here!" Hawkmon jumped up from his resting spot, doing his best to look vicious.   
The other digimon stared for two seconds, and then politely tried to hide their smiles of amusement. Before long, giggles bubbled to their lips and they were rolling around, laughing. "Really," Hawkmon said crossly, looking ruffled, "I don't think it was quite that humorous…"   
Kari smiled sympathetically at the bird digimon, "Don't mind them. I think you were plenty scary!"   
"Why, thank you!" Hawkmon responded, much pleased.   
"Kari!" Davis looked at his wife with wide eyes, "You just flat-out lied!"   
Kari only shrugged, "Yeah well, things change…"   
While the younger digidestined talked, the others peered down to the ground. "Uh-oh, trouble…" Izzy muttered under his breath.   
A huge mass of digimon were flowing upwards towards Garudamon. Realizing the situation, Tai immediately took the place of command. "Down to the ground!" he barked to the large bird digimon, "We're at a great disadvantage in the air! Hurry!"   
With a heart-stopping jerk Garudamon dove downwards, seemingly out of control. "Too steep!" Sora screamed up to her digimon, "We're going to fall off!"   
And sure enough, Kari and Davis were teetering on the edge. Kari was desperately trying to pull Davis up, while he was doing his best to keep her from sliding down. TK's arms encircled Kari's waist, and he was attempting to pull both his friends back to safety. "Straighten out your course!" Matt yelled.   
"I'm trying, but something seems to be controlling my limbs…" Garudamon grunted in effort.   
Cody stared down at the ground which was fast approaching. "Yolei! Hawkmon! Digivolve!"   
Yolei, Ken, Davis, TK, Kari, and Izzy looked towards the cool-headed man. Then the lights seemed to turn on in their heads. "Digivolve!" they shouted simultaneously.   
Lights burst up in columns around the digimon. "Prodigious! It's working!" Izzy proclaimed.   
TK raised an eyebrow, "You doubted their ability to digivolve?"   
"Erm… well… that is to say…"   
Everyone looked to Izzy, "I… uh… yes," Izzy dropped his head in shame.   
"To tell the truth, I wasn't sure either," Kari confessed, "I mean, helping Biyomon digivolve took a lot of love and energy,"   
The digimon chose that moment to emerge from the light, looking ready to confront anything thrown into their path. Tai glanced downwards. The ground was near, so near…   
WHOOSH! The flying digimon held Garudamon from underneath, directing her safely to the ground. After the digidestined had climbed wearily out of her hands, Garudamon de-digivolved to Biyomon. "Something was controlling me," she murmured weakly, "But it wasn't like Puppetmon. They could control my every move, and could probably control my powers too,"   
Sora rushed to the small bird, gathering Biyomon up in her arms. "Rest, I'll protect you. The others will fight,"   
Biyomon nodded and submitted to exhaustion. "Everyone digivolve!" Tai and Matt ordered.   
And everyone did as they were told. Before long a battle ensued, but only twelve against thousands were not good odds…   
~~~   
Kazuo squeezed his eyes shut as Azura aimed a kick at him. The water hit him squarely in the face and he fell backwards into the water that was almost up to his knees. He spluttered, waving his arms and legs madly in the water. "You got me!" he wailed in mock anguish.   
Giggling, Azura splashed her way towards the other girls. Clover was sitting with her back against the wall, her head dropped on her knees in a dejected position. Despite Aiko's stubborn tugging at her elbow, Clover had somehow been able to fall asleep. Makoto and Kaleb had wisely decided to save their strength, as if aware of their dire situation, while Bobby and Kazuo took turns keeping Azura busy. The adults slept lightly, the two younger women cradling babies in their arms. When the children were finally tired of playing they joined those that were sleeping along the wall. The haystack they had taken refuge upon had been dismantled in the water and floated along the surface like small straw boats.   
Miserable…  
Makoto looked upwards, peering into the speck of light that had appeared about twenty minutes ago.   
The plans may fail? Where are they? Do they not want to claim their most treasured possessions?   
"Treasured possessions?" Makoto questioned softly, "We're treasured possessions?"   
Everyone else was asleep on inspection, no one else had heard. "Are we treasured possessions?" he yelled upwards to the listening darkness.   
There was a deep, throaty rumble, as if someone was laughing. Yes, you are treasured possessions.   
"Why can't I really hear you?" Makoto asked in confusion, "I mean, I can hear you, but I can't! I mean, it's not as if your voice is actually coming out of your mouth! It's like you're talking…"   
In your mind? Yes dear boy, that is the answer. No, don't shake your head because it's true. You are your father's most treasured possession, are you not?   
"Dad! What's he got to do with this? Other than him coming to save me,"   
He is a digidestined. I will get my revenge on him.   
Makoto blanched at this, his face going pale. "Digidestined? What's that?"   
Children who were hailed as heroes in this world. They wiped out all that was… shall we say unpleasant? I never had my chance to shine. I was the next in line to be villainous, but THEY destroyed my dream. Now, treasured one, you know what your situation is. What do you think?   
Screwing up his face into an expression of disgust, Makoto spit into the water. "That's what I think of you! You're scum, and you're awful mean! Dad's gonna make you sorry for ever taking us! And guess what?"   
Only silence answered his waiting ears and mind. "Well, I'm gonna tell you anyway!" he yelled boldly, "I'm not Dad's most treasured possession! I'm his second! His most important possessions is his memories of Mom!"   
Tut, tut, tut. Silly boy, the sentence is wrong. It should be 'His most important possessions are', not 'is'. Very well, I shall take away the memory of your mother from both you and your father. It's been a pleasure talking to you, for you shall be dead at five. This one time conversation will always be an amusing memory.   
A chill ran down Makoto's spine, and an involuntary shiver racked his body. He fell into the water, spasmodically flailing about before he sat up, a dazed look on his face. "There's something I should remember, something important…"


	8. Chapter 7

**For Our Children **

Chapter 7   
  
No one noticed when Tai fell to his knees, clutching at his heart. All eyes were turned towards the digimon. One by one the evil digimon were being defeated, each attack knocking out ten to fifteen of them. "This isn't real danger," Davis scoffed, "We can handle them just fine!"   
"I wouldn't be so sure," TK contradicted, "There's a lot of them,"   
"Yeah well, doesn't matter! We can beat them no matter what!" he said confidently.   
Joe looked to TK and rolled his eyes, a smile garnishing his face. The digidestined had taken refuge behind a rock at the request of their digimon, so as to not get in the way. However, Tai had been popping up every two minutes to shout an order or warning. When he didn't jump up and shout on schedule, Kari turned to look for her brother. "Where is he?" she murmured tersely to herself, "I hope he's not hurt…" she cut herself off as she saw him huddled on the ground.   
His head was bent to the ground, as if he was praying or worshipping, his hands folded over his heart. "Tai!" Kari yelled in alarm, running towards him.   
In an instant she was at his side, afraid to touch him in case she would cause more pain. "What is it Tai? Where does it hurt? Are you okay?"   
Tai looked up at her with blank eyes, full of confusion. "I…I don't remember…something important to me…"   
A comforting hand touched his shoulder, and he turned to look into kind ruby eyes. "Sora?"   
"You've lost Makoto remember? We're going to save him right now," she reminded him.   
A look of surprise crossed her face seconds later when Tai knocked her hand away in an irritable fashion. "No, not that. I remember Makoto. It was something else, something incredibly important to me. But, I can't remember…"   
Kari's expression of concern seemed to be plastered on her face, "Is it your family? Your friends? The digimon?"   
Tai squeezed his eyes shut, trying to remember in vain. "I remember everyone here, I remember Makoto and your children, I remember Agumon and the others, I remember Mom and Dad. Who am I missing?"   
The answer flashed momentarily on the faces of Sora and Kari. "Tamika?" Sora suggested, "Is that it? You can't remember Tamika!"   
Confusion replaced the frustration in his eyes, and he looked wildly from one face to the other. "Who? Tamika? I-I don't remember a Tamika…"   
Kari grabbed his shoulders and shook him, none too gently. "Tamika! Your wife! You loved her, she was so important to you! She died remember? And you were so sad, like you had nothing to live for! Me and the others were so worried about you…"   
A misguided attack crashed into the ground next to the three digidestined. A loud booming sound followed while chunks and slivers of rock flew in their direction. "Duck!" Matt and Davis yelled, running in their direction and pulling them down in the nick of time.   
The rock fragments flew over head and collided into the large boulder they were taking shelter behind. "What's the matter with you Tai?" Matt demanded, "You're usually on top of things! How could you not have seen that?"   
"Matt," Sora chided him softly, "He can't remember Tamika,"   
Both Davis and Matt looked shocked at this piece of information. "Tamika? But he worshipped her!" Matt protested.   
"It's true…" Kari confirmed sadly, "It's like all his memories of her are completely gone,"   
"Meanwhile, we still have a battle to win!" Davis reminded them urgently, "and we also have some children to save. We'll solve this later, I'm sure it's just a temporary bout of amnesia,"   
"Right!" Tai stood up with his usual energy, "Let's win this!"   
~~~   
The water gurgled around Aiko's neck as she struggled to doggy paddle. "I can't swim too good," she informed Adelia, "Mommy and Daddy were just teaching me a month ago,"   
"Well, this is the perfect opportunity to learn better, isn't it?" Adelia said cheerfully, but inside she had a sinking feeling. There was no way the children would be able to keep afloat so long, and the adults could only do so much. Luckily, some of the older kids knew how to swim pretty well. At least they wouldn't have to worry so much about them. Mr. and Mrs. Izumi were already having trouble keeping the heads of Kentaro and Sakura above water while treading water themselves. Keiko was busy trying to help Azura and Clover keep afloat. "Lie on your back and spread your arms and legs out, that will help you float a little better," she told them.   
Azura attempted to do as told with disastrous results. She tipped over in the water and started to sink. "Oh for heavens…" muttered Clover, before diving downwards and pulling her sister back up.   
Spluttering and spitting water out of her mouth, Azura clung to her older sister, who was having trouble keeping them both afloat. "I-I d-don't l-like th-the w-w-water!" she sobbed, "I-It's s-s-scary!"   
Clover rolled her eyes at her little sister and pushed her towards Keiko. "You take her, I'm gonna go play with the boys," she announced.   
Although the boys were less than enthusiastic about allowing a girl to join them, they kept a stiff upper lip about it. "Let's play mermaids!" Clover suggested, batting her eyelashes at Kaleb.   
The boys made faces at this suggestion, and Kaleb immediately darted behind Bobby. "Save me!" he whispered desperately to the other boy, "Don't let her give me cooties!"   
Immediately, the three boys formed a protective circle around their distressed friend. "Fine then!" Clover said icily, holding her nose in the air, "I'll swim over to help Aiko. She's tons nicer than you guys,"   
Kaleb heaved a sigh of relief and pushed through the other boys. "Thanks guys. Boy, I hope Aunt Mimi is nothing like her daughter!"   
"The water's risen a lot! I can't touch the ground anymore," Kazuo said, trying to hide his fear but not succeeding.   
"Don't worry," Makoto said firmly, reassuringly, "Your mom and dad will come and save you, just like ours will come to save us!"   
Bobby followed suite to make Kazuo feel better, "Yeah, that's right! Joe- I mean Dad- will come any minute now!"   
"I sure hope so. What'll happen to the babies?" Kazuo asked worriedly.   
"Nothing will happen," Kaleb said resolutely, but he cast a concerned glance at his baby brother, "Mom and Dad will come in time,"   
~~~   
"We'll never make it on time!" Sora yelled in frustration, "These stupid digimon won't leave us alone! Aiko and Kentaro must miss me so much!" she looked to Matt, "But Kaleb will only be thinking about his father,"   
With a fierceness not of his own, Cody snapped at Sora, "This isn't the time to be thinking about the children! We have to defeat these digimon!"   
Sora flared up as well, "THIS IS EVERYTIME TO THINK OF THE CHILDREN! THEY'RE PROBABLY SCARED OUT OF THEIR WITS, MISSING US! THIS IS WHY WE'RE HERE! WE'RE HERE TO SAVE THE ONES WE LOVE! I ALWAYS THOUGHT YOU WERE SO CAPABLE OF LOVE, BUT YOU'RE ONLY THINKING OF THIS BATTLE! THIS FIGHT IS STUPID! IT'S POINTLESS!" she took in deep breaths, the scarlet fading from her face.   
The expression of shock on Cody's face was priceless. He had never known the kind and gentle Sora to raise her voice above a simple command. "I-I didn't mean to upset you,"   
"Sora…" Yolei, Kari, and Mimi walked up to her, expressions of sympathy on their faces as if they were unaware of the battle raging around them.   
Yolei and Kari each took one of Sora's hands and squeezed to lend support. Mimi smiled sadly at her friend and proceeded to face Cody. "It's not your fault you don't understand. You don't have children yet, and you're not a mother. You see, our children are the most important things in life to us, they prompt us to live, for them,"   
By this time, most of the digidestined had gathered by Sora, leaving their digimon to battle alone. Tai, however, was still in the thick of things. He rushed back and forth attempting to guide the digimon as a general would. When he realized where the others were he shouted a few more commands and rushed over.   
"This isn't danger. This isn't really danger. I'm disappointed in this strange evil," Sora was saying, "so far he's been able to elude us, despite the fact that we do have signals. He sent to us some half-attempt at danger! His poem lied to us about danger at two. This is just a diversion, some kind of nuisance. It's like he's testing us or something! Meanwhile, it's almost three o'clock and we're supposed to be confronting him! I won't stay here and waste my time any longer!"   
"I'm with Sora!" Yolei said brashly, "She's right!"   
Izzy traced the bridge of his nose with a finger, deep in thought, "It seems that Sora does present a good point. We _are_ merely wasting our time here while our families are running out of it."   
"You're right! I'm going to go get Bobby back!" Joe exclaimed, jumping up. A rock whizzing by narrowly missed his head, fortunately, so he sat back down.   
Everyone echoed Joe's emotion, and the digimon were called to retreat. "Wishing brought us here…" TK started.   
"…so wishing should take us to where our loved ones are," Davis finished.   
Matt took Sora's hands from Kari and Yolei, and then he held them to his cheek. "You're wonderful," he said softly, "You brought the solution to us,"   
Blushing, Sora stroked his cheek tenderly. "I picked it up from my husband and friends,"   
"Oh, stop it now," Kari said, not too crossly, "We have some praying and believing to do,"   
The digidestined joined hands, each closing their eyes. The digimon drew back from battle, de-digivolved to their rookie forms, and entered the circle. A brilliant light blossomed from each human and digimon, forming a protective opalescent bubble. All attacks aimed towards them were bounced off the dome. "Take us to our families," they murmured in unison, "Take us to our families…"


	9. Chapter 8

**For Our Children **

Chapter 8   
  
The water rose at a faster rate than it had an hour before, and not only was it coming from a hole in the bottom, but was gushing out from a hole higher in the wall as well. Aiko clung desperately to her older brother, her face buried in his chest as he did his best to tread water. "Do you want me to get off?" she mumbled the question into his shirt, "Am I too heavy? Daddy's always saying I'm too heavy…" she let out a dry sob as she mentioned Matt.   
Gritting his teeth, Kaleb shook his head, "No, you're my sister. If you get off, you'll drown and I won't have one anymore. Anyway, Mom and Dad will be awful mad if you drown,"   
Instead of reassuring the little girl, it only scared her even more, "I don't wanna be drownded!" she cried, tightening her hold around his neck.   
"A-Aiko! Stop!" he choked out, "I won't let you drown, okay? Your big bro's gonna take care of you!"   
Aiko nodded to show she understood and snuggled comfortably into his shoulder. "Thanks Kaleb, you're the best,"   
Treading water next to his friend, Makoto looked upwards to see if the light was still visible. It was only a faint pinprick of light, which struck him as being strange since it had been a much larger light when they were lower in the circular room. Or maybe it was a tube. He looked to his left to see Kazuo doing the same thing he had. "It's strange, the light seems to get smaller as the water rises," Kazuo voiced his concern.   
"Yeah, it is kinda weird," Makoto replied, "But everything'll be fine, right?"   
Kazuo regarded his friend with a hopeful look, "Sure, I guess, "   
Bobby, Clover, and Keiko all were busy trying to help Azura float while treading water themselves. When Azura, shivering and scared, finally gave up, Keiko took the little girl in her arms and attempted to keep her head above the water. Adelia, Mr. Izumi, and Mrs. Izumi took turns holding Kentaro and Sakura above the water. "I don't see how we're going to last," Adelia sighed, "I'm already tired and the children must be exhausted!"   
"Don't worry," Mr. Izumi said, trying to keep the mood optimistic, "They'll be here to save us soon, just you wait,"   
"That's right, they'll be here any second," Mrs. Izumi echoed confidently. "My arms feel numb," Clover complained miserably, "and my hands are all wrinkled, like raisins! I look horrible, I'm wet, and I'm really tired,"   
She closed her eyes and let herself float for awhile, but then slowly began to sink into the water. "Clover!" Keiko yelled in alarm, shoving Azura towards Bobby to hold.   
Quickly, the young woman dove downwards into the murky water, her echoes bouncing off the stone walls. _Clover, Clover, Clover, Clover…_   
Makoto let himself drop beneath the surface of the water, straining his eyes to find Keiko and Clover. At first he could see nothing but pitch black, but then fleetingly saw some movement. He kicked furiously to propel himself upwards and broke through the water at the same time as Keiko and Clover did. Everyone swam as best they could towards the woman and child, concerned and frightened. "Are you okay?" Mrs. Izumi gasped out.   
Clover shivered and held on to Keiko, "I'm so cold and tired…" she stammered out, "I want Mom and Dad, why aren't they here yet?"   
Looking closely at all the children, Mrs. Izumi noticed that their lips were tinged with blue, and many were shivering, although the boys tried to suppress the sign of weakness. Sakura and Kentaro wailed without any sign of stopping, and no matter what anybody tried, they would not be appeased. "Oh dear, I really hope Izzy and his friends will come soon," Mrs. Izumi confided to Adelia.   
There was a loud thump overhead, very loud for they could actually hear it over the water splashing down. "I want my children! Where are you? I'm going to make you SO sorry for taking them away from me!"   
Aiko and Kaleb grew excited when they heard the voice. "Mommy!" Aiko yelled upwards, "Mommy! We're down here!"   
"Mom!" Kaleb joined in, "Help us!"   
There was a long pause that snickered in their ears, and then there was a shrill squeal of gladness. "Aiko! Kaleb! Where are you? Are you alright? Are you hurt?"   
The sound of her mother's concerned voice was too much for Aiko, and she wept while trying to talk, "Momma, I'm cold! It's wet, and I can't feel my fingers!"   
"We'll be right there darling, hold on okay? Kaleb, is everyone else there with you?"   
"We're here Aunt Sora!" Makoto yelled up, "Where's Dad?"   
"Makoto? Is that you? I don't know where they are, but they're coming," Sora's voice was calm and reassuring, masking the panic that she must have been feeling.   
Mrs. Izumi motioned for the children to stay quiet while she spoke, "Sora? It's Kumiko, Izzy's mother. We're in a bit of a… situation here. As soon as everyone gets here, can you get the children out? I don't think they can last much longer, but we'll make sure nothing will happen,"   
"Is something in wrong? Are they in immediate danger? Oh my God!" Sora shrieked.   
Kaleb shifted Aiko's weight to the other hip before answering his mother, "No, we're okay Mom! Just hurry, Aiko's really heavy!"   
There was no answer.   
"Sora!" there was another voice from overhead, "SORA! C'mon get up…"   
The adults looked at each other, knowing something had probably gone wrong. The children were terrified, they knew that something had happened as well. "Mommy?" Aiko's voice quavered.   
"They're gonna come down and save us, right?" Bobby questioned, his tone betraying his disquiet.   
"Of course they are," Keiko told him, secretly wondering if this was to be their watery tomb.   
~~~   
Brilliant white lights surrounded Tai, filling him with wonderful feelings of love and serenity. He looked to his left, only to see no one was there. He looked down at his hands, he was sure he had been holding Matt and Kari's hands just a few seconds ago. Blinking, he peered ahead and saw dark figures that looked familiar. Kari and Davis! I should run to catch up, but it's so heavenly here…   
He let himself drift along, basking in the pleasant feelings that bombarded him. However, up ahead was a doorway, and he knew that on the other side was darkness. "No, I don't want to leave," he murmured to himself, "it feels so nice,"   
"_You promised to keep him safe_," a soft female voice said, almost sorrowfully, "_Will you break that promise to me?_"   
A face materialized from the white light, a woman's face with long black hair floating around it, as if the wind was caressing it. Then her whole body came into existence. Her face was thin, and though not beautiful was pleasant to look at. Her features were delicate and small, but her eyes were large and soft, like doe-eyes. She was clothed in white, and her smile was one mingled with happiness and disappointment. A twinge of recognition made Tai's heart beat faster, but he couldn't place where he knew her from. "I'm sorry if I've let you down somehow, but I don't know who you are," he said, feeling slightly embarrassed.   
There was no sign of scorn on the face though, only a gentle smile graced the woman's features. "_I know. I've been watching over you two, as I had promised. You will remember me when you've overcome this evil, I know this to be true. Now Tai, you promised me you would take care of Makoto. Will you not go to him, but stay in this place of wishes and dreams?_"   
"Wishes and dreams? Makoto? How do you know Makoto!" Tai demanded.   
"_I told you, you'll remember when this is all over. And yes, this is the place of wishes and dreams. Did you not use the power of wishing to transport you to Makoto? Now go, open the door. The others are waiting for you._"   
"Your eyes. You have Makoto's eyes!" Tai said accusingly, "Who are you?"   
The woman moved closer to him, her movements reminding him of a slim willow tree being blown by a soft wind. "_Remember Tai, I love you and I'll always be with you,_" she kissed him lightly on the cheek and smiled sadly, "_Give Makoto a hug and a kiss for me…_"   
The woman's body started to dissolve into the light, and a tear traced its way down her cheek. "_Goodbye…_" her face disappeared until there was only the tear drop left.   
With a final glint, the tear fell to the ground with a satisfying splash, and Tai was left alone. He held two fingers up to the spot where the woman had kissed him, his eyes stinging. The kiss had been light, like butterfly wings or just the warmth of the sun, but it had held a lot of tenderness and caring. His vision became blurred and he blinked to clear his sight. Tears splashed against his fingers, but he didn't understand why he was crying. Who was that woman?   
"Tai,"   
Looking down, Tai saw Agumon tugging at his sleeve. "We've gotta go Tai, everyone else is already there. They're gonna be waiting,"   
"You're right," Tai used his sleeve to wipe his face and moved towards the door.   
~~~   
Matt helped Sora up from the floor, his hands cold with fear. "What happened? Why were you on the floor? Don't scare me like that!"   
She gripped his arm tightly, trying to steady herself. "I just saw a flash of red… where's Biyomon and the rest?" she asked, slightly dazed.   
Matt stroked her hair to calm her trembling, "They're coming, don't worry."   
Sora jerked backwards and looked wildly into the darkness, "The children! They're here, I heard them!" she cupped her hands around her mouth and yelled out, "Kaleb! Aiko! Where are you?"   
Thinking his wife to have gone crazy, Matt kept a firm grip on her shoulder, "Sora calm dow-mmpph!"   
To cease her husband from talking, Sora had placed her hand over Matt's mouth, "Shhh…do you hear that?"   
"Mommy! Are you okay?"   
"What happened, Mom? Are you still there? Mom! Answer me!"   
Matt's jaw dropped, and then relief replaced the worry in his face. "Aiko! Kaleb! It's Dad! Is Kentaro there too?"   
"Yes!" Kaleb's voice was faint, but audible.   
"Hold on, we'll be right there!" Matt yelled back.   
"That's what Mommy said…" Aiko said in a sarcastic voice that she had picked up from her brother.   
Matt's face contorted ever so slightly at the tone of his daughter's voice, "Aiko, what have I told you…"   
"This isn't the time," Izzy's voice rang out behind them.   
Out of a bright light, the digidestined and their digimon were tumbling to the ground. "It's strange, we were all transported here separately, unlike when we wished to enter the digital world," Cody pointed out sagely.   
Joe and Izzy mulled over this bit of information until they realized their loved ones were somewhere underneath. Before long, everyone was kneeling on the floor, attempting to find the opening where the children were. "Where's Tai?" Kari wondered aloud, glancing around the dimly lit room.   
No one, save Davis, paid attention. They were occupied with their own families. The portal of light was still open, so they had assumed he was on his way. But he was taking too long…   
"I'm going back to get him," Kari announced, marching towards the swirling light.   
Davis grabbed her elbow, pulling her back towards him. "No, it could be dangerous! I'm sure he'll be here soon,"   
Jerking her elbow away from him, Kari gave him a sweeping look of annoyance and strode all the more resolutely towards the light. "You're being irrational, it's not dangerous in there. I'll only go to speed him up, he's getting too slow in his old age…"   
She was stopped in mid-sentence as Tai fell through the portal, knocking her down. Agumon followed soon after, landing on top of the Kamiya siblings. "Get off!" Kari demanded hotly, "You're heavy! Ouch… Tai, did you gain weight?"   
"Sorry Kari, but I just met the strangest woman in there…" Tai started to explain.   
Kari cut him off immediately when she saw his face, "Why, Taichi Kamiya! You've been crying!"   
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Tai, my brother-in-law, my childhood idol, one of my best friends was _crying_?!" Davis said in disbelief.   
"Dad! Dad, it's me!" there was a faint cry from underneath.   
Tai immediately joined the little circle around the round and heavy stone that was open just a crack. "Makoto! Makoto, is that you?"   
"It's me Dad! Help us out! The girls are really tired, and we don't want them to drown!"   
Hearing this, Mimi started crying, afraid for the lives of her daughters. Sora looked ready to join in, but only gripped Matt's hand tighter. Kari once again took refuge in Davis' shoulder. Yolei, however, threw her full weight against the massive rock, while Ken looked slightly confused. "Yolei! What're you-"   
"Shut up and help me push," she grumbled, pushing as hard as she could.   
Understanding what she was trying to accomplish, the others joined in. Half of them pushed while the others tried to pull. After ten minutes the rock had budged an inch. Glancing down at his watch, Tai realized that their time was running out, fast. "Agumon, you've got to digivolve! We can't waste our energy!"   
Joe nodded and held his digivice up, "Gomamon, listen. We need you down there buddy, you can swim the best out of all of us. Please, just keep them safe and well,"   
Agumon and Gomamon nodded their heads. The columns of light formed around them again, one a bright orange and the other a rich purple.   
"Agumon digivolve to… Greymon!"   
"Gomamon digivolve to… Ikakkumon!"   
They burst out of their respective columns, each ready to do their job. With one swift movement, the stone circle was pushed aside, but Ikakkumon seemed to reluctant to dive in. "What if I drown them?" he asked doubtfully.   
"You won't," TK reassured him, "there's plenty of room,"   
Carefully, Ikakkumon lowered himself into the circle, and before long a splash told everyone that he was in the water. There was a hoarse cheer from everyone, above and below. "We're okay!" Adelia yelled up.   
"Oh, thank God!" TK breathed out.   
"The fur's really warm Mommy!" Azura called up to her mother.   
Mimi collapsed on the ground sobbing again, but this time in relief. "That's good baby. I'm glad…"   
"_SILENCE!_" the room trembled, although there had really been no sound, only the voice feeding directly into their minds, "_I have been watching, and it has been amusing. Knocking out the red-haired one was my version of a tantalizing taste of a large, delicious cake. But now… 'The clock strikes three, it's time to appease me…' _"


	10. Chapter 9

**For Our Children **

Chapter 9   
  
Tai glared into the darkness, unable to see any shape. "Show yourself!" he yelled, "Or are you too chicken? Afraid that the digidestined will soundly defeat you?"   
"Yeah!" Izzy joined in, "Are you pusillanimous to be quenched by our unassailableness?"   
With an expression of clear confusion, Davis added to the message, "He just means that you're a lily-livered bully for getting to us through our families," he blinked, "a-at least I _think_ that's what he meant…"   
"_I have no time to listen to these puerile arguments. Proceed to sit,_"   
Scuffling was heard from throughout the room, and twelve chairs emerged from the darkness, seeming to float inches above the ground. When the chairs came closer, the digimon and their partners could see that many black rats were carrying the chairs. "That's cruel!" Palmon protested, "Making those poor rats do the work for you!"   
One of the rats sat up on its haunches, "We do it for Meshugamon. Our life is to serve Meshugamon,"   
They bowed back into the dark corners of the room. "_Sit,_" the voice ordered again.   
"You're Meshugamon?" Joe questioned.   
"_Yes that is I…_" the voice hissed, "_Now please sit of your own will, before I force you to sit myself,_"   
At this moment, Ikakkumon peeked out from over the edge of the hole where he had gone in to rescue the family members of the digidestined. He tried to clamber over the edge, but for some reason could not. "Guys!" he bellowed, "A little help here,"   
The other digimon jumped and attempted to run over, but a barrier of light sprung up in a circle around each one. "Hey!" Gabumon protested.   
"Let us out!" a certain ruffled pink bird seemed rather upset.   
"_Drastic Beam!_"   
With a loud yelp, Ikakkumon flew backwards into the hole as a beam of red contacted him directly in the chest. Screams and wails of fear were heard from the children and adults as they plummeted downwards.   
"Keiko!" Cody cried out in alarm, running towards the hole.   
He was trapped however, a circle of light surrounding him as well. In a quick second, all the digidestined were imprisoned in a tube of coloured light. Meshugamon finally revealed himself. Kari gasped in fear and reached out for Davis, only to contact the solid light instead. Meshugamon was large, ten feet tall and a menacing grin decorated his face. Small beady eyes glinted in the darkness, and the snubbed nose was wrinkled. Overall, the face was ugly. Small ears were perched on the top of his head, and he was covered in brown, shaggy fur. A large tail whipped behind him, but what was most frightening were the razor sharp talons garnishing each finger and toe. He pulled back his thick, and apparently stretchy, lips into larger smile, revealing many sharp teeth. "_Frightened? It has taken me many years to digivolve to this state. I'm proud that it finally worked,_"   
With a flick of his wrist, the columns of light moved across the floor with the digidestined inside. Each one stopped when the chairs brought out by the rats were also encased in the light. "_Sit…_" Meshugamon's voice was taking on a darker tone now, there was no mistaking the suppressed fury.   
"NO!" Mimi jumped up and pounded against the solid light, "No! Azura! Clover!"   
Meshugamon snapped his fingers, and Mimi flew backwards into the chair. She struggled to move but found that she could not. Without a second thought, the others sat down. They had no wish to be unable to move, especially in a situation like this. The large digimon glanced down at the watch strapped onto his thick wrist and his lips stretched themselves into a smile once more. "_Only a minute behind schedule. It is now time to appease me,"   
_"How do we appease you? We'll do it! Anything to get our loved ones back!" Yolei pleaded.   
Black eyes glinted and bore into her own eyes, and she flinched as she felt an emotion of pain and unhappiness wash over her. "_I want to feel your pain. I want to see you suffer, but not physically. Physical infliction of pain is not satisfying enough. Before long the body is too battered for more. But… the mind. Ah, the mind can take much more torture, and there is much enjoyment to be had, watching one inflict pain on themselves_," he looked around the room, eyes eager and tongue licking his lips, "_Who shall be the first?_"   
Immediately, Tai and Matt jumped up. "I will!" they both shouted, "Don't hurt the others!"   
Shaking his head, Meshugamon maintained his smile. "_No, you won't do. What will torture you the most is to see your friends suffer,_" he scanned the room greedily, and his gaze stopped on Mimi, who was cowering with fear. "_You, you will do. Let me enter your mind…_"   
The colour drained from Mimi's face and she let out a small shriek before her eyes dimmed. She slumped, almost lifeless, into her chair. "Mimi!" Sora yelled, pushing her chair away with a clatter.   
A snap of the fingers and the chair was uprighted. "_Sit still and do not move_," Meshugamon growled dangerously.   
Sora did as she was told._   
_~~~ _  
"I got the forms. Everything's filled out. All I need is for you to sign here."   
Mimi watched in shock as the pen marked a bold "X" on a line before the papers were shoved in her direction. She looked up into cold gray eyes. David's eyes. "M-me?" she stammered out.   
David let out a sigh that clearly showed his irritation. "We've made all the agreements, remember? You get the house and the children. I'll see them every other weekend. I get the car, you get the van. I get the piano, you get the computer. Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Don't tell me you've forgotten already!"   
Looking wildly around the room, Mimi realized she was in a lawyer's office. Standing behind David was a thin, sharp looking man. Everything about him was angular, his face, his body, his fingers, even his smile. He stepped forwards and moved beside Mimi. "Please, Ms. Tachikawa, we've discussed this before. You agreed most vehemently. Your children are waiting outside, and you may go to them as soon as you have signed this,"   
Mimi glanced at the door, and sure enough two small faces were pressed up against the window along the side of the door. A closer inspection showed that tears filled their eyes and spilled down their cheeks, their noses red from crying. A pang in her chest informed her that her heart was breaking. She was getting divorced? She was making her children suffer? "No! David! Think of our children!" Mimi demanded.   
David's expression softened as he regarded the two small faces, "I am. You think it makes them happy to hear our fights? To hear us argue non-stop day and night? This will be much healthier for them. They have to understand that we don't… we don't love each other anymore. But we still love them,"   
Something twisted inside of Mimi at that moment. There's no more love between us, she thought to herself, our children will suffer because we didn't try to repair our relationship sooner…   
And then she started crying. She knew in her heart that she didn't want to divorce David, that she still loved him. But how could she tell him when he had already said he didn't love her? She'd just have to try. "No, David!" Mimi grabbed at his arm, "No! We have to stay as a family! I don't want the kids to deal with the back-and-forth thing! I promised myself as a child that I would never divorce! David I… I love you!"   
Her soon-to-be ex-husband frowned down at her, "Mimi, that's not what you said last month. Look, this relationship's past salvation! No Mimi, I'm not turning back. I don't love you,"   
With a moan, Mimi threw herself at David, clutching at his arm. "No David, no! Anything is salvageable! We have to try!" she looked out to the two anxious faces, so full of pain and hurt, "We have to try for our children. Please, please don't do this to me! It breaks my heart…"   
_~~~ _  
_Izzy watched nervously as Mimi's body twitched in her chair. Tears formed in the corners of her blank eyes and trailed down her cheeks. "No…" she mouthed, "No…you can't…" and then she let out a heart-rending moan, a moan filled with distress.   
As the others watched, unable to do anything, Mimi continued to make emotional sounds of grief, before leaning her head forwards against the light and banging her head against it. The room was soon filled with her muffled noises and the sound of her head contacting the light. Meshugamon opened his eyes and grinned maliciously. "That was fun. I can tell this one will bring me much pleasure, already I am feeling much happier. To feel her emotional pain…you will finally experience what I felt all those years I waited to become the ultimate evil,"   
"Someone? Anyone help!" there was a faint cry from the gaping hole in the floor.   
But the digidestined dropped their heads in defeat. All would be lost.


	11. Chapter 10

**For Our Children **

Chapter 10   
  
Unable to do anything but to sit and watch while his friends suffered, Tai mentally beat himself up. _They're suffering! Their worst nightmares are coming true, and I'm just sitting here…_   
Tai looked over to Matt, who was watching Sora with haunted eyes. A single tear trailed down his face as she curled up into a ball on the ground, her sobs mingling with the cries of help from his children. He gave Tai one look of total defeat before submitting to grief. Tai looked on helplessly, his eyes smarting painfully as he regarded their situation. It was hopeless, there was nothing to be done. At the mention of hope in his mind, Tai looked to TK, who cowered in his chair. "Please…please…" he was imploring softly.   
A glint in the darkness attracted Tai's attention, and then he was glaring into Meshugamon's dark irises. "Let them go…" Tai said softly, "Leave them alone," his tone grew harder with each syllable, his words striking like sharp rocks at the large digimon.   
But Meshugamon took no notice of Tai's bitter tone. "_Ah, the original owner of Courage, still holding fast. But you know that I cannot stop. Your worst fear is to see those all around you suffer, and so it will continue,_"   
"Coward!" Tai spat out, "Attacking us where we can't protect ourselves!"   
"_So much emotion floods me. Since you put it so nicely, I will let you take a stab at protecting them then…_"   
A brilliant flash of light blinded Tai momentarily, and he gave a yelp of pain. When he could see again, he was standing in front of a distressed Mimi hanging onto her husband's sleeve. "Please David, please! We'll figure things out, we'll find a way to patch things up! Don't throw ten years of marriage away!"   
Tai glanced to the door and recognized two faces that he often saw in pictures. However, these two small faces were not happy and cheerful as in pictures, but were filled with hurt and confusion. "Mimi…" he said softly.   
She looked up in surprise, her face stained with tears, "Tai? W-what are you doing here?"   
David, standing over Mimi, did not seem to notice the new presence in the room. "What's going on?" Tai asked urgently.   
With tear-filled eyes, Mimi looked in the direction of the tables. "Divorce papers," she whispered hoarsely, "I can't believe this is happening…"   
Shock replaced the sadness in her eyes as Tai's eyebrows snapped together. In one swift movement he had her by the shoulders and was glaring into her face. "It's NOT happening!" he almost yelled into her face, "Don't you remember where we are? What we're doing? Snap out of it Mimi, and wake up!"   
Surprise was clear on her face now, but what he had said didn't seem to register in her mind. Her expression showed her confusion. "I don't know what you're talking about," she confessed.   
"It's not happening! It's not real! Remember, we're in Meshugamon's cave! Fighting to save our childre-" Tai was cut off as gray smoke snaked around him, concealing him.   
When the smoke disappeared, Tai was gone along with it.   
~~~   
Tai heaved a sigh of frustration as he watched Sora sob over Matt's body, the small forms of her three children sprawled close by. Blood was everywhere, and Sora was desperately trying to staunch the blood flow from Matt's gun wound. "No Matt…don't die!"   
Already, Tai had seen this scene twice. Kari was the first, Yolei was the second, and now Sora? "Don't you women worry about _anything_ else?" he asked.   
Sora looked up with horror-filled eyes. "Tai? Tai, help me save Matt!"   
Rolling his eyes, Tai bent down. "Sora, this isn't real. Matt is alive and well er… kinda anyway. C'mon, this is just an illusion of some sort. You're stronger than this Sora," his tone became serious, "I've known you almost all my life. I know you can see past this if you really try…" as Tai's voice trailed off, he disappeared in gray smoke.   
"Not real?" Sora looked down at her husband strangely.   
Matt was crying, bawling even, repeating over and over that he didn't want to die. Inches away were his children, still, unmoving, cold. But Matt didn't even look towards them, he only stared at Sora and begged for her not to let him die. "You're not Matt…" she said slowly, realizing what Tai had tried to tell her.   
"What do you mean? Of course I'm Matt! Darling, don't let me die, please! I love life too much!" the Matt protested, eyes still filled with tears.   
"No," Sora said accusingly, her eyes narrowing, "You're not my Matt. My Matt would be worried more about our children than himself. My Matt would be insisting I leave to call an ambulance to save our children. My Matt would be crying silently on the inside for our children, but he would be smiling on the outside for me. He would be telling me that he loved me, that everything was okay, that I shouldn't worry. You're not my Matt…"   
And with that said, Sora stood up and walked away from the gruesome scene, walking towards a light that she hadn't noticed before.   
~~~   
When Tai tapped Davis on the shoulder, he was slightly surprised when the younger man hugged him fiercely. "Kari! Kari you came back with Sakura!" "Whoa, hey man, calm down!" Tai slowly peeled Davis off, "It's me, Tai. Kari's brother?"   
Immediately, Davis detached himself from Tai, "Oh. Sorry," he scrubbed furiously at his eyes, not wanting a former idol to see his tears, "I thought you were Kari,"   
"Why, what happened?" Tai asked, curious to know what Davis' fear was.   
"Kari left me. She took Sakura and went to be with TK," he said sorrowfully, his face contorting into a mask of sadness.   
A comforting hand on his shoulder made him look up, "Davis," Tai said his name sympathetically, yet spoke to him as an equal, "Kari loves you. You of all people should know that. TK's in the past. You have to understand my sister loves you more than anything, just like how I know you love her. So please, wake up and save your daughter. Save your nephew. Help us to save everyone!"   
~~~   
"I'm sorry, I can't say it,"   
Tai watched as TK's face fell. "Adelia, I love you! I really do! Don't you love me as well?"   
"I can't…"   
Deciding that it was an ideal time to interrupt, Tai cleared his throat, "Uh…TK?"   
Spinning around, TK glared at his brother's best friend. "Tai, I'm kinda busy right now,"   
Tai looked to the woman standing before TK. She was definitely Adelia, same long brown hair, same green eyes, but the warm smile was gone. "TK, if you're in love with this woman, can't you tell something's wrong?"   
"She's just upset, that's all. Nothing's wrong! This is what Kari was like when…"   
"When what, TK?"   
"When I couldn't say I loved her…" TK glanced fearfully at Adelia, "But I love you now Adelia. I love you more than anything!"   
Smiling, because he finally understood why Kari and TK broke up, Tai held out a hand to TK. "TK, get up off the ground. You're coming with me to save the real Adelia,"   
Because of his immense trust in Tai, TK nodded and took his friend's hand. "Alright, I believe in what you say,"   
~~~   
Slumping back in his chair, Izzy hid his face in his hands. "I can't believe I've lost everything…" he murmured, "Even Mum and Dad,"   
His personal office, the office which he had made so plushy and comfortable, was stripped of everything. The only thing left was a rickety wooden chair and a picture frame of the Izumi family. "How? How could everything just fail and plummet in the stock market? I don't get it…"   
"That's because there's nothing to get,"   
Izzy turned around to see Tai's concerned face. "What do you mean?" he asked curiously, "I've just lost everything I've worked hard for. My parents have rejected me,"   
"Look Izzy, you know your parents love you. They took you into their home, and they love you like you're their own son," Tai explained patiently.   
Izzy brightened up, "Yeah…yeah! I guess you're right!"   
Tai let a lop-sided grin cross his face. "Good. C'mon let's go,"   
~~~   
_Beep. Beep. Beep. Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep._   
The heart monitor went flat-line. Joe hurled his gloves against the wall in fury. "This is the fourth patient!" he yelled, "I've lost another one! I'm supposed to be saving lives, not ruining them! This profession was supposed to help people, but I they keep dying…"   
The door opened, and a nurse dressed in pink peeked in. "Dr. Kido, I'm sorry but they wanted me to inform you that you've been let go. I'm very sorry,"   
After the nurse departed, the door swung silently behind her. "My dream. My life's dream is gone now. Gone! How am I going to support Julia and Bobby?"   
A figure materialized before him in a puff of smoke, and Tai grinned a little wearily down at his friend. "What's up Joe?"   
Joe jumped backwards, knocking into his patient's body. "T-T-Tai! Where'd you come from?! Don't scare me like that!"   
Tai held up his hands in defense, "Hey, sorry man. Didn't mean to scare you. Anyway, let's cut to the chase: This isn't real. Whatever just happened didn't really happen. Now come on. You're the sensible one of the group. Be sensible and come with me to rescue Bobby and make Julia the happiest woman in the world,"   
~~~   
"I hate you! I don't want you to be my new father! Get away from me!" Kazuo yelled in Ken's face.   
"But, I want to love you. I want to help you!" Ken pleaded, "I want a chance to be a good parent, like my Mom and Dad. Please Kazuo, give me that chance!"   
Despite Ken's genuine words, Kazuo turned his head away. "No," he said coldly, "You'll never be my father, never! I won't ever call you Dad! I won't play catch with you, or go watch sports with you! You're not good enough to be my dad!"   
Ken's throat choked up. _This must be how my parents felt when I was the Digimon Emperor. Forgive me Mom, Dad. I finally understand how you felt._   
"Please," Ken begged in earnest, "I'll be a good father to you. I'll do so many things, I'll share all my free time with you-"   
Don't bother!" Kazuo cut him off.   
"Hey Ken," a voice rang out behind Ken.   
The young man grabbed a lamp from the table by the couch and held it threateningly over Tai's head. "Get out of my- Oh! Tai, it's you!" Ken put the lamp down when he realized that the man covering his face protectively was a friend.   
"Geez, remind me not to visit you and Yolei without knocking. Ever," Tai replied testily.   
"Sorry Tai, but I'm kinda in the middle of things," Ken motioned towards the upset little boy.   
Tai peered closely at the child in the middle of the room. He seemed to be about Makoto's age, and had dark blue hair. "Hey, he's a cool little kid!" Tai exclaimed, "This your new son?"   
"Yeah, sorta… Look, we're having some problems right now."   
Tai sighed, "They're not real problems, okay? So far everyone else has understood what I've said! Except maybe Mimi, because she was the first one I talked to… Anyway! This isn't real! It's like an illusion! I'm sure this kid thinks that you're cool, and I bet he really wants you to be his Da-" Tai disappeared in a puff of smoke.   
~~~   
"_He's actually succeeding…_" Meshugamon growled softly, "_I let a bit of sentiment almost destroy my plan. But no worries, I will succeed. It's almost four and then I may seal the tube,_"   
The large digimon watched as the blond man stirred in his seat, groaning. "_Let's see, that one is Matt? Dear God the night, the possessor of courage does his work well, despite the fact I give him only two minutes in each mind…_"   
Sure enough all the digidestined, except Tai and Matt, were now very aware of their surroundings, each pounding furiously against their imprisoning tube of light. "Let us out!" Yolei yelled, jumping up and down in her tube.   
"I agree! This has gone on long enough!" Joe yelled.   
TK joined in, "You've gone too far! Attacking the things we hold dear,"   
"And using our worst fears against us!" Kari started yelling too, "That was a cowardly thing to do! If it wasn't for Tai…"   
"_I know,_" Meshugamon said, "_And it delights me,_"   
~~~   
"Yo, Matt!" Tai yelled to his friend, motionless on the ground, "Get up!"   
He lay down on the ground next to his friend, staring into his blank eyes. "Didn't you hear me Matt?" he tried again, "I said get up!"   
Matt's eyes came into focus again, and he looked straight at Tai, "Hey man," he whispered softly.   
"Why are you still lying on the ground? Get up!" Tai demanded.   
"What for? It's hopeless. If I don't have Sora and the kids, there's nothing to live for," he said sadly, his eyes dimming again.   
"Jesus!" Tai jolted into a sitting position, "Matt! You and I have always been the strongest of the team! Don't give up on us now! Don't give up on Sora and your kids! Look, they're all alright! All they needed was a little bit of convincing from yours truly! Now get up, or do I have to drag you?"   
Matt flipped onto his back and stared at the sky, "Do you know what it feels like to have nothing to live for?" he asked, ignoring Tai's rant, "It's a horrible feeling. But… there's also this big blankness in you, kinda like you have no soul. It's like my soul was a huge blackboard, with everything I cared about scrawled on it, but then some big eraser came by and wiped it clean. It's empty. Emptiness, loneliness, it's all the same thing…"   
"YAMATO ISHIDA!" Tai yelled, pulling the grass out around him in his fury, "What is wrong with you? You have everything to live for! I thought you got past this stupid loner stage a long time ago! Alright, you want something written on the blackboard of your soul? Here! There's Sora! S-O-R-A. There's your children! K-A-L-E-B, A-I-K-O, K-E-N-T-A-R-O," he wrote the letters in the grass as he spelled out the names, "There's your brother! T-A-K-E-R-U. And your parents! P-A-R-E-N-T-S. And your friends! I-Z-Z-Y, M-I-M-I, J-O-E, K-A-R-I, D-A-V-I-S, Y-O-L-E-I, C-O-D-Y, K-E-N, and T-A-I-C-H-I!"   
Matt sat up and looked strangely at his friend, then a smile crossed his face. "You're right," he said.   
No other words, just those two. "You're right,"   
He stood up and brushed the grass off his pants, "I'm not a kid anymore. I'm an adult, and I have responsibilities. I have to protect my family, and I'm not alone. Heck, as long as you're around, Taichi Kamiya, you won't leave me alone,"   
Tai grinned up at his best friend, "Glad you're seeing things my way. Sheesh, and I thought you'd be the last person I'd need to waste so much energy on!"   
"What're you sitting on your butt for? Get up and get moving!" Matt barked.   
Tai jumped up and saluted his friend. "Yes sir! Right away, sir!"


	12. Chapter 11

**For Our Children **

Chapter 11   
  
"_Hey Cody, how are ya?_"   
Cody looked towards Tai and Matt's still bodies, unmoving but most definitely alive. He had been like that only a few minutes ago, and he knew that soon Tai and Matt would be fully conscious and spirited, as always. Yet his mind kept returning to Tai's interruption in his worst fear.   
"_What's wrong? Hey, you're a kid!" Tai commented in surprise, "Wow…how'd that happen?"   
Cody looked up with big wet eyes, "I guess you could say it's my biggest fear. No one seems to see that I've grown up. Everyone treats me as a little kid, even you…"   
Tai's eyes softened at this, "Oh, hey, Cody I'm sorry about that. It's just that you're the youngest digidestined, and we kinda felt responsible for taking care of you. I guess the feeling never wore off," he shrugged apologetically.   
"But I'm not little anymore! I'm older, and more grown up! Why can't anyone treat me like I want to be treated? I'm twenty-four!" Cody looked at himself, "Or rather, I'm ten…" he mumbled miserably.   
"Look Cody, I'm sorry, I really am! But you know there's one person out there who doesn't think you're a kid."   
"Oh yeah? Who?" Cody asked in a challenging tone.   
Tai grinned, "Keiko of course!"   
A vision of Keiko's smiling face, her warm hands against his cheeks as she patted it playfully, all the while with an adoring glow in her eyes. Not a glow of fondness for a favoured young child, but the glow of love for another, an equal. A devotion that was stronger than anything else. Warm feelings stirred within him and a smile curved on his lips. "Thanks Tai, I feel better!'   
When he looked up, Tai was gone…_   
Mentally shaking his head, Cody looked at the real Tai and Matt who were starting to stir. Glancing down at his watch, his heart skipped a beat instantaneously. Two minutes to four. "Guys! Guys, it's almost four!" he pounded against the light to attract their attention, "We gotta get Tai and Matt out of their heads and out here now!"   
"But what will we do?" Yolei asked in a worried and frantic voice, "We're still stuck in here!"   
"_The clock strikes four, forever closes the door,_" Meshugamon's voice drawled out, "_It's much too late digidestined. I suggest you say a fond farewell to those you hold dear,_"   
Sora watched in horror as Meshugamon snapped his fingers. The rats streamed in as a single thick flowing mass, creating hardly a sound. "He's going to push the rock cover over the hole! They're going to drown!" she yelled out.   
She turned to face Matt's still form in the tube, but she didn't try to break through her light. She merely touched it lightly with her fingertips and let her eyes flutter close. _Wishing has worked every other time so far_, she thought to herself, _Why not now?_   
"I want my family to be whole," she whispered continuously.   
The light flickered nervously under her fingertips, but would not let her through. "_Do not try bearer of Love, you are no longer near the world of wishes and dreams. I have protected this place from that terrible world, it's a futile cause. Give up,_"   
But Sora wouldn't give up. She continued to whisper softly, her eyes squeezed shut in concentration. As the rock was pushed into place, the barriers around Tai and Matt crackled and horrible screeching sounds were heard. With a final whine of protest, the light disappeared altogether. A tired smile crossed Sora's face as she collapsed to the floor. As the soft thump of her body echoed in the cave, all the light barriers shut down, and the digidestined looked to each other questioningly. The digimon, however, wasted no time and ran towards the stunned Meshugamon. "Boom Bubble…" Patamon inhaled air and spit the air out as an attack, "PAT!"   
Despite his surprised expression, Meshugamon still managed to have the state of mind to hold up his hand and stop the attack. "_Cease,_" his mind's voice was commanding, "_Cease now!_"   
All attacks aimed towards him stopped in mid-air. He flicked his forwards and the attacks spun around to face the digimon. With a snap of the fingers, they rushed towards the digimon. Tai opened his eyes and blinked twice before he realized what was happening. "Agumon! Agumon WATCH OUT!"   
But his cries of warning were too late. Agumon and the others were hit full on in the chest and were thrown backwards into the wall.   
~~~   
"No! Momma!" Azura wailed in anguish as the light disappeared.   
There were screams and yells of pain from above, and Ikakkumon let out a howl. "I have to help them!" he grumbled, "They need me!"   
Mrs. Izumi crawled closer to Ikkakumon's head, "Excuse me, but I'm afraid that we need you here. The children are really very tired and I doubt they could swim,"   
With a growl of shame, Ikakkumon bent his head, "Sorry, my mistake. Listen, cover the children. Keep them safe and keep a good grip on my fur. I'm gonna try to break through the rock,"   
Without bothering to reply, Mrs. Izumi rushed to get all the children on their stomachs and covering their heads. "Keep down everyone!" she shouted out before throwing herself down on Ikakkumon's back as well, "And hold on tight!"   
Ikakkumon took the cue and aimed his horn at the rock above. "Harpoon Torpedo!"   
He fired off one, two, three times. The impacted the unyielding rock above about a second apart and explosions echoed throughout the tube. But there were no shattered pieces of rock raining down as all had expected. Instead, the room was deadly silent after the echoes had died out, except for the sloshing of water around them. Adelia lifted her head and looked upwards. "It didn't work…"   
Makoto ignored this depressing piece of news and hollered upwards instead, "Dad! Dad, I believe in you! Help us!"   
The other children joined in, their voices mingling together. "Please! Help us Daddy!"   
"Mommy! I miss you!"   
"I don't want to lose my new parents! Don't get taken away!"   
Ikakumon plunged his head into the water, and then shook the wetness out of his fur. "I'm sorry I failed…" he said miserably, "But I know Joe and the others will find a way,"   
"_Help, help, help…_" the echoes bounced off the walls into the ears of the desperate humans.   
Clover started sobbing, and soon Aiko joined in. Azura, however, continued yelling for her mother. "Shhh..shhh," Keiko tried to hush them, "I'll sing you a song, but you have to stay silent, okay?"   
The children nodded and immediately put out requests. Mr. and Mrs. Izumi shared relieved smiles that the children's minds were taken off of the dire situation at the moment. "Mary Had A Little Lamb!" Aiko shouted over and over.   
Azura, however, did not agree. "Do-Re-Mi!" she demanded.   
"Life Support!" Bobby suggested.   
The other kids turned to stare at the boy. Bobby only shrugged, "Joe-I mean Dad-and Mom took me to see RENT in the summer. I liked it,"   
"Sing 'Somewhere Out There' please," Clover requested, "Mommy and Daddy always sang it to us,"   
"YEAH!" the other children chorused in agreement.   
With a smile on her face, Keiko cleared her throat and tested her voice with a few notes. Her singing voice wasn't the must beautiful or enchanting, but it was pleasant, sweet, and clear.   
"_Somewhere out there   
Beneath the pale moonlight   
Someone's thinking of me   
And loving me tonight   
Somewhere out there   
Someone's saying a prayer   
That we'll find one another   
In that big somewhere out there…"_   
~~~   
Kari cradled Gatomon in her arms, "Wake up! Speak to me Gatomon, you're okay right?"   
"Yeah…" Gatomon's voice was weak.   
"You've stood your ground from worse attacks than that," Kari reminded the digimon through her tears, "Don't you dare give up after that tiny little piece of nothing!"   
Gatomon smiled, "You're right. Just give me a few moments to rest,"   
"Palmon! Palmon are you okay?" Mimi asked, running towards her best friend.   
The small plant digimon gave a bit of a groan while trying to stand up, "I'm fine Mimi. I'm not going to let you down. I'm going to get to see your daughters if it's the last thing I do!"   
The others nodded their heads, determination numbing their pain. "Let's go!"   
"_How?_" Meshugamon was questioning himself, "_How was she able to break the barriers?_"   
"With love!" Cody shouted, "Something I don't believe you've ever had in your life!"   
"_Love is nothing,_" the digimon replied scornfully, "_It is only an emotion,_"   
"But it's strong!" Yolei interjected, "Look how Sora's love for everyone broke the barriers! You're going down Meshugamon!"   
"How can you be so sure?" he asked, "I'm powerful, much more powerful than you know,"   
A smug smile appeared on Tai's face, "Because with a little bit of love, Sora was able to bring a bit of the dream and wishes world here. Imagine what we can do all together! Plus, we have digimon who are going to kick your butt! Agumon, digivolve!"   
"Tai's right!" Matt joined in, "There's no way you can beat us! We've got too much going for us, too much that we'd have to leave behind!"   
For the second time that night, the digimon digivolved to their ultimate forms. "Now get ready for a fight! We're taking you to the dream world and then taking our kids home to bed!" Davis yelled.


	13. Chapter 12

For Our Children 

Chapter 12   
  
"_Somewhere out there   
If love can see us through   
Then we'll be together   
Somewhere out there   
Out where dreams   
Come true…_"   
Keiko held onto the final note for a little while longer, not willing to let it go. As the clear notes bounced off the walls, most of the children curled up in sleep. The slow song had lulled them to sleep, Ikakkumon's slow swaying in the water acted as a cradle or rocking chair. Adelia smiled at the small children around her, "They're so young, they shouldn't have to deal with this, not even for a night,"   
"I agree, but what can we do?" Keiko sighed, she crawled over the small forms and squeezed Adelia's hand, "We'll get through. Cody's the most determined person I've ever met. A little too serious at times, but once you crack through the shell…" she smiled, "I've never been happier,"   
Adelia gave her new friend a knowing smile, "I know exactly how you feel,"   
"Ahhhh… young love!" Mrs. Izumi smiled, "Don't you miss being that age?"   
Mr. Izumi smiled at his wife, "Sometimes, but love is like wine. It gets better with age," he kissed his wife on the forehead, "You don't need all that romantic stuff, you just get a fuzzy comfortable feeling,"   
Laughing with good humour, Mrs. Izumi patted him on the cheek, "Honey, you were never good at that romance stuff anyway,"   
Ikakkumon's laughter rumbled through the tube, "You people sure are entertaining. Oh, and Keiko, you have a very nice voice!"   
Keiko blushed, "Thank you,"   
"And I'm sorry I have to ruin the mood," Ikakkumon apologized, "But the water is rising very quickly now. We'd better start praying the others will come, we're not far from the top,"   
The colour drained out of the adults' faces.   
~~~   
The opalescent shield that Meshugamon had summoned around himself flickered as attacks bombarded him from every angle. "Hand of Fate!"   
"Celestial Arrow!"   
"Flower Cannon!"   
"It's not working!" Davis observed, "He's not moving any closer!"   
All the other digidestined, save Tai and Davis, were joined in a circle, eyes squeezed shut as they wished and prayed to the best of their ability. "I dunno if I can do this much longer," Sora spoke up weakly, "I'm really tired…"   
Matt let go of her hand and supported her with his arm around his shoulders, "Hang on honey. Just think really hard, concentrate. Think of our children hugging us around the necks. Think of their laughter, and think of them telling us that they love us," he urged her, "Don't give up!"   
Sora looked fearfully towards the immovable rock, "They're in danger Matt. I know they are! Aiko said she was cold and wet! Even Kaleb sounded scared, and you know how he tries to act all brave around other boys!"   
"It's okay…" he soothed her, "We'll get them out in time,"   
Yolei clutched at Ken's hand, "Start praying and start praying hard," she murmured the order to him.   
He only grinned fondly down at her, "That's the Yolei I fell in love with,"   
Everyone closed their eyes and continued to pray. Davis and Tai took turns directing the digimon in attacks. "Team one: FIRE! Drop back! Team two: FIRE! Drop back! Team three: FIRE! Drop back! Team four: FIRE! Drop back!" Tai shouted the orders continuously.   
Those behind him squeezed their eyes shut. "Please, please…" Kari was pleading under her breath.   
As each digidestined prayed harder than they ever had, before. A small flicker of light appeared behind Meshugamon as he fought to hold his own. "_Foolish digidestined! Once you are exhausted I will make you all suffer. It will be excruciating pain for you, both physical and mental. You will regret ever trying to destroy me!"   
_"Who says we're trying to destroy you?" Davis yelled at him, "We're not here to 'destroy' anyone!"   
It was visibly obvious that everyone was straining to concentrate even more as the small sliver of light started to spread outwards. Meshugamon, however, was oblivious to the rip of light behind him. But then…   
The light disappeared. "What happened?" Yolei gasped, "We were doing so well!"   
Izzy bent his head guiltily, "It's my fault. My concentration was side-tracked. I started wishing that my parents were safe, that the rock would move, that everything would be fine…" he trailed off and squared his shoulders, "I won't do it again! I know we can do this!"   
Everyone nodded, and Joe grinned at his friend, "Hey no problem! One slip-up, we'll be fine!" but his eyes told the truth. Joe was secretly worried and there was a permanent crease forming on his forehead.   
They joined hands once again and squeezed their eyes shut.   
~~~   
Mr. Izumi reached up into the darkness above him and contacted the ceiling with the very tips of his fingers. "We're getting closer to the top," he informed his wife in a whisper.   
"Oh dear…we'd better wake the children up," she responded, an expression of worry on her gentle face.   
Meanwhile, Keiko and Adelia had made the same discovery. "This isn't good," Adelia observed with a little quiver in her voice, "This isn't good at all…"   
She stroked the hair of Aiko, who was sleeping closest to her, "What are we going to do?" she implored Keiko for an answer.   
Aiko turned over onto her back and heaved a small sigh. "Somewhere…out there…" she murmured in her sleep, "Out where dreams…come true…"   
The water around them gurgled soothingly, deceptively comforting.   
"Poor little darlings…" Keiko murmured, and then looked up towards the unyielding stone, "Oh Cody, where are you? Please come through!"   
~~~   
"_Please come through…_"   
Cody's eyes snapped open, but the light behind Meshugamon didn't waver this time. In fact, it only grew stronger. "Keiko…" he spoke softly, "Hold on, I'm coming!"   
He let go of Yolei's and Joe's hands. "This won't work!" he yelled in frustration, "Passive wishing won't do anything! I want Keiko back, and I want to go home now!"   
The portal of light ripped open further. Light spilling into the dark room. The others gaped in amazement, "But how…?" TK voiced the question in everyone's mind.   
Meshugamon had turned around, small eyes wide with horror. The light flowed around him, tracing a large silhouette of him on the ground. "_How_?" he questioned unbelievingly, "_I've protected this place!_"   
"You know what?" Kari yelled loudly, "I want to go home too! I want to go home with my baby and husband, and be happy like we've always been! You have no right to take that away!"   
Tendrils of light started to pull away from the pool of brilliance and wrapped themselves around Meshugamon's legs. "_No!_" Meshugamon whimpered, "_How could this happen! I don't want to confront my dreams!_"   
Mimi's expression showed that she felt some pity for the monster who had stolen her children. He's only lost, she realized, he's strayed from his true path!   
"The dream world, if that's what it is, really isn't so bad…" she said as she walked towards the struggling digimon.   
"_Everything's falling apart…_" he panted with effort, "_My careful plans! My… my…_" his eyes lolled around in his head in panic, as if he was a wild animal.   
Tai snorted at the fact that this digimon had been reduced to such a state.   
Then he felt a twinge. A twinge of sympathy for this villain. Closing his eyes, Tai saw the face of the woman in white once more. "_Help him Tai_," she was saying, "_Help him towards the light…_"   
With a determined expression on his face, Tai walked up behind the flailing Meshugamon. "You really need to face these dreams of yours,"   
Foam gathered at the edge of Meshugamon's mouth, and he let out a horrible yell as he stared straight into the light. The digidestined, minus Tai, huddled together, "We want to go home with our loved ones!" Davis shouted.   
"We don't want to deal with this mess!" TK joined in, "All we want is to be home, we don't wish to battle with you,"   
The others nodded their heads in agreement and murmured to each other about their thoughts. More bands of light pulled away from the solid light and wrapped themselves about Meshugamon's arms and torso. One vine-like string of light coiled itself invitingly around Tai's wrist, tugging insistently. He looked back at Matt for a suggestion on what to do, but his friend only shrugged his shoulders. "It can't hurt you, right? You might as well go and see what that world wants,"   
As Meshugamon was pulled in through the portal of light with a scream of horror, Tai obediently walked towards it. "Get that rock moved while I'm gone!" he called before walking into the light calmly.   
~~~   
The scene that was supposedly Meshugamon's past dream was actually quite pleasant. It was obviously the Digital World, and the sun was radiating a gentle warmth to the land. Tai made a face, it reminded him of one of those Disney movies that Makoto used to love watching, where everything and everyone was perfect. Amid the peaceful scene was a small digimon, furry but not exactly cute. His face was full of acceptance and warmth, but it was heavily wrinkled, much like that of a pug dog's. Basically, it could be said to be ugly. However, the digimon who surrounded him in a ring took no notice of this, they only begged to play or asked nicely for help, which was gladly given at request. The coils of light unwound themselves from Meshugamon and Tai, retreating back towards the portal that glowed brightly behind them. "Who's that?" Tai asked, keeping his distant from the deranged digimon.   
"_That's me in my rookie form_," Meshugamon said sadly, "_I'm known as Grulamon in that stage_,"            "So what's the significance of this scene?" Tai asked curiously.   
Meshugamon heaved a sigh, "_It was my dream, to be accepted despite my looks. But no one…everyone rejected me,_"   
Watching in amazement, Tai gaped only as the scene changed and dark clouds rolled in. Everything changed, the happy digimon disappeared, and the small digimon in the center sat by itself, ears drooping. "And what about this?" Tai questioned.   
Meshugamon turned on the man, eyes flaming with hatred, "_Darkness was gone from this world, except in my heart. I had no friend, no one to relate to. Everyone always rejects me! At least when there were others full of sin, I was not so alone…but then you banished all evil! But you missed me! You missed me…_"   
"I…uh…what?" Tai blinked in confusion.   
"_I was once again rejected when the digidestined did not deem me worthy of destruction. I was left here, without anyone to look up to, without anyone to befriend, you've made me what I am!_"   
Meshugamon now stalked his way towards Tai, "_You will pay! Even if the others will not suffer, your pain will suffice!_" he raised his hand, "_Drastic Beam!_"   
With a yell, Tai tried to duck out of the way but found his muscles frozen. In that split second, his life flashed before his eyes. And all he could think about? Makoto.   
A blinding flash of light blossomed before him, and the figure in white absorbed the attack for him. "You!" he exclaimed, "It's you again! Are you okay?"   
As he said this, the woman turned to smile a weak smile. "_I'm fine. You must forgive him, he's been alone for most of his life_,"   
"But Gatomon was alone for most of her life!" Tai yelled angrily, "And even she wasn't so bad! What's his excuse?"   
"_Gatomon was eventually picked up by Myotismon. She at least had someone, even if he wasn't someone she wanted…_" she trailed off and cocked her head to one side, "_Why did you never tell me of this world when I was alive?_"   
Tai shrugged his shoulders, he still couldn't place her in his memory. "So what do I do now?" he asked, clearly confused.   
"_Help him…_"   
"I can't! I need Agumon here!"   
The portal widened and Agumon stepped through, "You needed me Tai?"   
Tai looked to the woman again, "Er… let me rephrase that. I need everyone here! Including our kids, and girlfriends, and ummm… parents?"   
The woman smiled and nodded, "_As you wish. Oh, and Tai? I know what you're thinking_," she smiled charmingly at him, "_And I'm not a genie. It's nice to know you haven't changed since I left_,"   
Before long, the digidestined and their digimon stepped through the portal. When she saw the woman hovering near Tai, Sora gasped. "Tamika!"   
The woman, whose name was finally known to Tai, smiled to the other woman, "_Sora, it's good to see you again. Turn around, there's something you treasure…_"   
Everyone turned to see their families, dripping wet with bewildered expressions on their faces. There were many happy cries and tears. "Momma!" a high-pitched squeal topped them all.   
Tai once again turned to Tamika, "You're kidding me…it's that simple?"   
"_Not exactly. But Meshugamon is losing the darkness now. Look at him_,"   
Tai did as told and looked over at the digimon. He was huddled in a heap, moaning in misery and utter abandonment. "Now I have nothing…" his voice was no longer in their heads, "Nothing except the memories of two people,"   
"Dad!"   
Makoto's voice attracted Tai's attention, and he whirled around to greet his son with open arms. "Dad! Dad! I knew you would come! I knew we would be okay!" Makoto flung his arms around his father's neck.   
Abandoning his need to look strong and brave in front of his son, Tai wept silently into his son's shoulder, "Makoto! You have no idea how much… I was so worried… you mean more than anything to me!"   
Makoto nodded and only buried his face further into his father's neck, "Me too Dad," then he pulled back, "But I kinda feel sorry for that guy…"   
Father and son, hand-in-hand, walked towards the grieving Meshugamon. Tamika and the others watched with something like pride apparent on their faces. "I'm sorry I called you scum," Makoto apologized, "Don't be sad. When I'm sad, Dad makes me sit down and write a list about all the good things in my life. Why don't you do that too?"   
Meshugamon lifted his head to regard everyone curiously, "Why are you willing to forgive me so quickly? I'd still be willing to kill you right now if I had the chance,"   
Kaleb left his parents and moved towards Makoto, "I dunno…cause we're with our moms and dads? I mean, all we want to do is go home now! No faster way of doing it than to forgive someone. That's what Mom always says,"   
With tears in her eyes, Sora smiled with pride and blew a kiss to her oldest son. Kaleb made a face and blushed bright red, "Awww Mom... stoppit!"   
Meshugamon looked to all of them, "Is this how you all feel? After what I've done? Threatening your lives, and the lives of those you treasure?"   
"They forgave me," Ken pointed out, "And I pretty much ruined their lives when I was evil. You only ruined a few hours,"   
"Look, no matter what we always find it in our hearts somewhere to forgive," TK supplied, "No matter what. We're just a bunch of softies,"   
Adelia pulled his arm around shoulders closer to her face, "I missed your smell," she teased lovingly.   
"And I missed everything about you…" TK leaned his face over hers.   
Yolei slapped both hands over Kazuo's eyes, "Don't watch," she ordered firmly, "It's not suitable for children of your age,"   
Kari only heaved a sigh at her friend and cuddled her baby daughter closer, "When we're happy, we're capable of doing the impossible, such as forgiving you…"   
"No that it's impossible!" Davis cut her off hurriedly, "I mean… shoot, I forgot!"   
Everyone laughed at Davis, so great was their relief that they would have laughed if someone had mentioned the sky was blue. Even Meshugamon allowed himself a less-than-sinister chuckle. "So what do you say? Try to come to terms with us and live a harmonious life?"   
"Yeah, it couldn't hurt, could it?" Joe piped up, ruffling Bobby's hair, "The rest of us'll live happy lives even if you refuse to."   
Gomamon rolled his eyes, "Joe!" "Whoops! That sounded harsh didn't it? Whatever, you know what I mean! Right? Right?!" Joe queried anxiously.   
Cody looked on with his serious eyes, but Keiko brightened his expression with just a small snuggle under his arm, "I can forgive you," he said simply.   
The digimon moved towards Meshugamon, frank smiles of acceptance and offerings of friendship clear on their faces. "We'll be your friends. The more the merrier!" Patamon declared.   
"Really?" it seemed that Meshugamon couldn't believe his good fortune.   
Matt grinned, "They're offering their friendship, and trust me when I say it's something that'll change your life!"   
Meshugamon nodded, a smile crossing his face. "I accept. But I'll need some time," he closed his eyes, as if wishing, and a brilliant light surrounded him. "To the original bearer of courage and his son, I give you both your most treasured possession,"   
And then the light was radiating from his body, slowly shrinking in size until it was a digi-egg. Gatomon snatched it up, "Don't worry, we'll take good care of him," she reassured everyone.   
Tai and Makoto looked to each other, and then at Tamika. "Mom…" Makoto whispered hoarsely, "That's you, right?"   
When she nodded, he threw himself at her, "Mom! Are you back! Are you back for good?"   
Tai was not far behind his son, and soon he had them both in his embrace, "It was you," he whispered fiercely into Tamika's black hair, "I can't believe I didn't remember… oh God I wasted my time with you!"   
"_Not at all_," she smiled, "_You didn't waste your time at all. I miss you_," she reached a hand down to stroke Makoto's cheek, "_My two boys, my favourite two boys_,"   
She bent down to kiss Makoto on the forehead, "_You be good, I'm still watching over you_,"   
As she straightened up to look at Tai, he turned his gaze from hers, "Don't say anything, it's all been said,"   
Tamika nodded and kissed him lightly, softly, "_I love you_,"   
There was a loud sniffle, and further investigation revealed it to be a close to bawling Yolei, "This is worse than my soap operas!" she wailed as two rivulets of tears made their way down her cheeks.   
"Oi vey," Ken muttered as she comforted her.   
Makoto and Tai, with tears in their eyes, watched longingly as Tamika faded out of sight, "_Until next time_," she called.   
"Bye Mom!" Makoto yelled, refusing to sob but unable to stop the tears.   
Tai, however, remained silent. As he had stated, it had all been said.

~~~

**Author's Note: Well, you've finished reading! Lol, like I said in the opening author's notes I wrote this before I saw the ending of 02. I kinda sorta (coughnarcissismtimecough) liked my versions of their lives a bit better, after all how probable is it that all the digidestined will have kids? There are bound to be a few singletons here and there ^^. Anyway, I *swear* that I didn't know about the whole wishing and dreaming thing defeating the enemy, after all this was before the finale! Kinda freaky that I think like Toei and their evil splitting up Taiora-ness! But Sorato has it's good points too, really it does! Anyway, I did _not_ intend Meshugamon to turn out the way he did at all. I wanted him to be evil, but nooo he had to come out and be just another confused villain . And Tamika! Darnit, that woman was dead and a part of Tai's past! That was all she was meant to be, she was supposed to stay dead and I have no idea how she strayed into the plot. Oh well, shows what happens when you don't plan a fic out ^^. Until next time!

mikomi .^^.


	14. Epilogue

**For Our Children**

Epilogue: Taichi Kamiya

Looking back on the experience now, I can say that it was a blessing to be able to share the digital world with those that we loved best. Sometimes, I do question everything we had to go through, and everything they had to go through, but in the end it was well worthwhile. After she – Tamika – left, we let ourselves truly bask in the company of our digimon. We sat down for a few hours, or maybe it was only a few minutes, and chatted with our digimon as if nothing had happened. All the others fell asleep, and the scene was pleasant, just like one of those Disney movies again. While we talked, Gatomon never let go of Meshugamon's egg, maybe she felt that she could relate to him. One way or another, the new Meshugamon would have friends now. After our long heart-to-heart talks were finished, we woke up the others and they became closely acquainted with our digimon. But all good things must come to an end, and we had to leave. Agumon and Makoto shook hands solemnly, and Agumon whispered to me in secret that he really liked Makoto, that he was a lot like me in my younger years. God, I miss Agumon even more now, I just hope I can see him again.  
On the other hand, I can talk more freely about Tamika now. The sting in the memory is gone, and now it just brings a smile to my face. Makoto feels closer to his mother, and I'm glad that I now have the courage to speak to him about her. Life for Makoto is as normal as always now, and I'm glad. If the digital world had somehow changed his life for the worst, I would never have forgiven myself. He often wonders, like myself, how things are faring in the digital world, and I often have to reassure him that if anything happens we'll somehow be summoned.  
Matt and Sora are now even more protective of their kids, if that's possible. Don't get me wrong, they don't stifle their kids, but they're very careful. I guess all of us have learned to be more careful with our children. Anyway, they're still living happily and Makoto and I visit them quite often. Aiko's just as hyper as ever, and Kaleb and Makoto are still good friends. As for Kentaro, well that kid's got some set of lungs! Oh, and I beat out Joe for the god-father position. Sora and I continue to be good friends chatting daily at the school about our newest problems with the kids. Recently, Matt and I have taken up golf, a nice relaxing game where we can talk about whatever we want without the kids around. They think it's the most boring sport around.  
Life has returned to normal for Kari and Davis, but they're currently trying to find a full-time nanny for Sakura because Kari has to return to work soon. So far, their best offer is from Keiko, who seems to have become quite fond of the baby. They're seriously considering hiring her, she's really very capable of handling Sakura. Cody, however, doesn't want her to be a nanny. He'd rather she used her full potential and be a doctor or something, she does have a lot of diplomas. But I have faith that they'll figure it out.  
TK and Adelia are now engaged! Not surprising after the ordeal the couple had to go through. Davis is to be the best man, and a friend of Adelia's is to be the maid of honour. We're all invited, but I doubt Makoto will go. Weddings were ruined for him forever when we all attended Joe and Julia's wedding. He endured much cheek-pinching and cooing, as did the others, and he declared he would never go to a wedding again. But then, he thinks an awful lot of his Uncle TK, but still not as much as his Uncle Davis.  
Izzy and his parents are closer than ever nowadays. The only thing they don't get along on is when they keep finding new 'girls' to go out on dates with him. I hear Izzy complaining about it almost every night when he calls. On a lighter note, his company's doing better than ever, and he continues to shower our kids with gifts. Before long, we'll all have very spoiled children on our hands.  
Another happy piece of news, Mimi and David resolved their differences and the Lambkiss' have never been happier. Azura, I hear, is still as silly as ever and Clover often e-mails Kaleb, who reluctantly replies under the orders of his parents. Mimi's career is better than ever. Last I heard, she was starting a new movie under a big-name director. Who? She won't tell any of us, but she promised us a sneak preview.   
Despite his fears, Ken is a great father to Kazuo. Those two are inseparable, I'd think they were real father and son! And that's the way they want it. At times, it seems as if Yolei's jealous of the close bond they share, but Kazuo absolutely adores her so she has little time to be envious.  
So you can see that our lives are back to normal now, nothing's really changed and I'm thankful Makoto got to meet Agumon. We're all glad that we can share something really precious to us with those that we love the best.


End file.
